Harry Potter and the Cloaked Death
by Dinner
Summary: To die and move on; it was what the Master of Death wanted more than anything. But not every victory ends with the victor getting what he wants. For Harry died, and he had moved on. But not to the realm of the dead. No, he ended up in the womb of a certain Uchiha. This is a story about how most plans seem to backfire. A story about sacrifice and love in more ways than one.
1. A cloaked death

**Disclaim**-her-him, if ever the Harry Potter universe was mine, do you honestly think I would need to post my musings here?... so to clarify for this once I do not own Harry Potter nor do I hold any rights to the Harry Potter Franchise (I wish I did, it would take care of a lot of financial problems) Nor do I own Naruto or Sasuke for that matter.

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><p><strong>Prologue: A cloaked Death<strong>

Magic was eternal. It was there before the sun was hellishly hot and it would be there when the universe would go ghoulishly cold. Old tales spun of mystery and vague truths told of an entity that walked the earth before humans did, and would walk still when humans did no more. They called the entity death, for that is what humans do. They need to give things names. Especially things they do not understand. The reaper of souls was called Death. The sun was was once called a god and Harry Potter was once The-boy-who-lived.

And it was this boy, that knew he could live no longer. He knew it was finally his time. Past his time even. For what human had the right to be eternal? What kind of creature other than a Phoenix was pure enough to last the centuries unscathed, the master of Death knew he wasn't. He hadn't been pure since the fall of Voldemort.

Death was silently walking behind his master, as Death had done a thousand times. His master was his favourite thing in the universe after all. The bond the three hallows forged between them, it was stronger than anything. Stronger even than the will of his master. "This is goodbye."

Death felt something inside of him snap, break, twist, curl up and die. "I know. I've grown fond of you aswell. But this world, I am not meant for it anymore. To walk among the descendents of the grandchildren of the grandchildren of my friends; it is wrong."

His master made the great lake, he was standing at the edge of, part for him with the flick of his wrist. "You don't have to be sad." His master walked while _his_ cloak billowed in the wind that made the water part. "I've appreciated your company as well. But unlike you, and despite my outer appearance, I've grown old and tired."

The master of Death stopped when he reached the deepest trench. In the walls of water around him mermaids were singing, and a giant squid was waving his tentacles; as if saying goodbye. "I'm sorry that by departing you will be alone again. But I like to believe I've taught you how to find company among humans, you'll find someone interesting once again. I'm sure of it."

A warm feeling spread through his being when his master told him that. Death saw his master dissapear behind his cloak and the warm feeling cooled down, changed into something else. Something heavy. His master whispered words of magic, magic that turned into black stone, entombing them both. "Farewell, Death." His master said.

"Avada."

Death wailed, cried and shrieked. If his master left him... he would be alone, another eternity of loneliness. But his master had already decided his own faith- and Death had come to know him so well, he wouldn't stop for anyone. Death suddenly realized something, there was someone his master would stop this for. A moment of concentration and Death changed, gone were the black robes and skull like features. This would stop his master, certainly.

It did. His master choked on his next word. "Ginny." And Death felt warm once more. His master wouldn't mind spending an eternity if he wore this visage. But his master sighed. "Death, don't. You're not her. We both know this. You need to let me go." Death let the visage of the redhead shatter.

And then his master did it. While cloaked from Death's eyes he turned the Elder Wand against himself and with a green flash of light his master was no more. The black tomb was bombarded by millions of gallons of water, burying Harry Potter. The boy-who-lived. The Master of Death.

That day a world died as Death raged acros the universe. Untill the one creature even older than Death stopped his rage. And suddenly it all made sense to him. His master never had a say in the matter. It was all a plan, a puzzle slowly revealing it's picture, piece by piece. A deep sense of understanding took hold of Death. His master was the one. His poor, poor master.

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><p><strong>AN<strong>: This is my first story ever so I will most likely make a lot of beginner mistakes, either choose to continue reading despite this or stop reading now. This was the prologue which was rather short but the following chapters will vary in length. I will not give many spoilers but I have to tell you that this story will not, and I want to emphasize 'not' have any harry/anyone pairings other than Ginny that is.

I love reviews and if possible shall respond to them individually as soon as possible, so any question non-spoiler orientated will most likely be answered.

I want you to read this story with an open mind because some of the things that will happen will feel out of place, but I want you to know that I have a reason for (almost) everything.

-rewritten in may of 2014


	2. At the end of the tunnel

I refuse to disclaim this story again, for the disclaim-her-him go to the prologue where it will silently keep watch over the following chapters.

**AN**: I cannot believe how many people have already added this story to their lists and c2's. I hope this chapter and the many more to come will not disappoint y'all!

Special thanks to my mega-awesome six reviewers who took time to actually review!: Taboo22, JuMiKu, xXxOtAkU-444xXx, ArrancarMaiden, Simpleinsanity, TheBlackSeaReaper.

Now on to the chapter!

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: At the end of the tunnel<strong>

Sitting on the porch of his home, a boy was hearing his mother scream. Sitting next to the boy was his younger brother. His parents had made him babysit. Which gave him some quality-time with his little brother.

"Why does mommy scream like that? Is the doctor hurting her with needles?" the smaller boy asked in a scared tone.

Itachi, as the bigger boy was called petted his brother on his head "No, it just hurts to get the baby out of her belly." He told Sasuke. "And even though she is screaming very loud at the moment, the pain will stop and be forgotten as soon as the baby is born."

Sasuke looked at his bigger brother and nodded. "Did momma scream when _I_ was born as well?" He asked.

"Yes, she did. It's normal. She screamed this loud when I was born as well." Itachi said calmly.

"Then I never want to have babies in my belly! I don't want it to hurt." Sasuke said with horror struck eyes.

Smiling, Itachi took hold of his younger brother and placed him on his lap. "Don't worry about that Sasuke. Only girls are capable of having babies in their belly." Hearing the boy on his lap making a relieved sound he could not help but laugh.

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><p>'Curious' Harry thought, thinking of old Ollivander who had said the same thing to him once.<p>

Harry could hear and see very little. In the last few months he had gone from being just in existence to actually being aware. It was not something he would have ever expected death to be like, he was sure death would be like a peaceful continuation of his being, while sharing his time with his loved ones.

Harry was almost sure he was not actually dead. He did not feel as at peace as the dead had told him he they were. It was as if his life still tightly kept clinging to something, like he was still among the living. The soft murmurs he could hear seemed to confirm this suspicion. Perhaps he was in the veil now, but the murmurs certainly did not sound as haunting as the voices he had heard when he was in the presence of that object. But they also didn't sound like the song of the merfolk. So where was he?

And with that thought Harry could not help but to think he had somehow messed it up, his perfect plan to die. To be united with his loved ones. But apparently even in death Harry was somehow fates plaything, or perhaps Death had intervened somehow? Perhaps this was the place where Death went if he wasn't reaping souls? It would explain the timeless feeling. Time never seemed to matter to Death, all Death really knew of time was that it came to those who were mortal. Yet so far it had been comfortable and warm where he was now and despite thinking about his failures in life he enjoyed his time in the warm dark place that was, for a lack of better word, his home.

He knew he was weak right now. He didn't feel his magic. The few movements he could make felt sluggish and tired him quickly. He had succumbed to quiet sleep while trying to move without even noticing it. Only knowing he had fallen asleep when he woke up and regained his sense of self.

It was during his sleep that Harry could feel _something_ changing, waking him up. His eyes felt like they were burning yet they were not. And for some reason his lack of magic was acting very abnormal. Where his magic used to feel like it was a calm ocean that Harry could just drift in without worry, it wasn't present in his being right now. But something else was, something else was in the same place; but it wasn't comfortable... It was a burning feeling. A feeling that was starting to feel warmer and it didn't take long before Harry knew there was no longer nothing. There was a raging fire within him. A fire that might burn him if he sought it out.

There was no denying it. His non-death was entirely too curious.

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><p>His eyes finally stopped burning. They felt the same as they always had though. Perhaps the not-magic was trying to find a way out? Perhaps his eyes had been damaged somehow? Harry was unsure of what the burning sensation had meant or caused. All he knew now was that it had stopped. Despite being alone in this strange place, boredom never struck him. It was like his mind couldn't focus long enough for it to get to that state of mind.<p>

No there was always something interesting. There were memories of the past. Good ones. Ones in which he felt loved. Ones in which he loved others. Bad ones, in which he felt hatred, in which he felt anguish. But never too long. There was always something that made him think about something else. As if his mind couldn't hold the thoughts for longer than a few minutes. As if his minds' muscles were not strong enough yet. As if holding on to a thought was tiring. For two or three thoughts caused consciousness to make way for sleep.

His body though, it was an entire different thing. The sluggish movements of the past seemed to have made way of less sluggish movements. He could turn around, wiggle his toes. He could rub his belly. His body had been growing stronger. But so had the burning sensation of his not-magic. It was still raging deep inside of him. But the wariness of before had dissipated. The fire seemed to fuel him.

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><p>There were times when he felt like he got tired of this place, the moments of consciousness had become longer than the few thoughts he could fit in them previously. Boredom came, once, twice. Memories of old didn't entertain him as much as they did before. Whatever this place was, it was time to get out.<p>

Apparently this place was tired of him as well. For the entire fluid-like-space around him seemed to whirl.

Floating around Harry suddenly felt as if he was in a slowed down version of apparition. The feeling lasted for hours, and hours, not even sleep could conquer this strange feeling. He was wide awake. It was a disturbing feeling, but at the same time it felt so right, so natural. He was confident that if he had not been a wizard he would have panicked. But alas sometimes magic would fulfill your deepest desires and Harry was getting what he wanted, he was going away from the fluid-like-space.

And then he saw _it_. There was light. No longer was there just darkness.

Finally he would actually go to his next great adventure he could see it, the light at the end of the tunnel, but something was off, he could hear a woman screaming as if in great pain. But it mattered not. He needed to go to that light he wanted to see his best friend Ron and tell him that after two hundred and fifty years the Chudley Cannons had finally won the national championship. He needed to see Hermione to tell her he had gotten his NEWTS after he turned 200 years and that he had passed with seven outstanding's.

He needed to see Ginny to hold her, to kiss her, to tell her he still loved her more than anything or anyone. He wanted to see so many people and wanted to tell them so much that perhaps even the eternity that death could give was not enough time.

The woman that had screamed while he was nearing the end of the tunnel, while he was slowly getting closer to the light, was getting louder and louder with every second he got closer. He now could also hear a man calling out to the woman. It wasn't in English though, Japanese? Harry knew Japanese. It wasn't too difficult a language. But why was he hearing Japanese?

"Come on Mikoto! You are almost done." The man seemed to say in slight desperation. Harry could see that the light was getting dimmer and less intense, and he panicked. 'No, I need that light! I want to go into the light, I need to see that light!' Harry felt the burning fiery not-magic coming to his aid. His eyes felt ablaze but he could see. The light was getting brighter again. He wouldn't lose his chance to see his loved ones. The feelings of loss and desperation left as quickly as they had come. With a mighty pushing feeling Harry felt more than saw the light envelop him.

He had made it. Happiness took hold of him. The not-magic in his eyes was still there, but as the light faded, so did the burning sensation.

But happiness faded when Harry felt cold hands grabbing him. With the bright light slowly fading, human faces took shape. He could see humans, but not his loved ones. No, all that Harry saw were strangers!

Desperate and unable to do anything else Harry broke down and cried. He yelled and kicked and in his thought he was cursing every deity he had ever heard of a blue streak.

After an intense moment of raging fury Harry felt sleep taking hold of him. But not before reality kicked in. Because he had seen the tiny hands, the small arms and chubby fingers. He knew that somehow Fate had screwed him over in an unforgiveable way. He had been reincarnated.

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><p>Fugaku was a very composed man, to the entire village he was the epitome of a ninja, he was silent, deadly and supposedly loyal to the Hokage. But above all this he was an Uchiha.<p>

Everyone knew he was the head of the Uchiha family, and his family was treated as royalty amongst mere commoners. Well, at least that was the way the villagers of Konoha treated them. As he was walking to the police station and talking to the deputy chief of the police force he was surprised to see a ninja appear in front of him.

"Uchiha-sama, it has started." Fugaku did not need to be told what '_it_' was, and he did not need to be told twice. He turned to face the deputy chief of the police force and curtly said: "Uchiha-san, I will be taking the day off.", "Of course Fugaku-sama, congratulations are in order I bel- !" the deputy chief had not even finished his sentence or the soon to be father of three had already shunshined away.

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><p>Mikoto, was inhaling.. exhaling, inhaling.. Exhaling. But the breathing exercises did not help relieve the pain a single bit. So despite being an honorable woman that, like her husband, to the village seemed as a very composed and silent woman, she let out a eardrum shattering scream that could be heard three houses away..<p>

Breathing be damned, all that helped was screaming and crushing everything that was held within her hands, not even noticing that it was her husband's hands she was crushing she did not hear him try to sooth her, no she just kept on screaming without going hoarse. She had thought that after two easy pregnancies she would have no trouble getting through this third labor. But she was wrong, so utterly wrong. How could she have assumed such a naïve thing? It hurt more than being stabbed by a kunai, it hurt more than being set on fire, and this she knew from experience. It was as if her insides were being kicked and torn apart by that demon of a child inside her.

Mikoto was sure that the baby would make a great shinobi when the time came, if the pain being inflicted upon her person was any indication. Perhaps her torturer would join the torture and interrogation force upon graduating. She was sure the baby would make Ibiki proud...

She could feel the head of the baby passing through and soon the entire baby was out and she could stop screaming, she could stop crushing everything in her hold and she could see the little angel that had just been born.

She looked at the child for a moment it was entirely silent and she could see, obviously his, eyes. She was surprised to say the least when she saw their color. She blinked and looked again focusing on the eyes, the blood red eyes.

"Sharingan!" she gasped as the spinning eyes of the boy were taking in the world around him.

"Our child… He is born with a fully awakened Sharingan!" Fugaku said with apparent awe in his voice: "Mikoto!" Fugaku was still holding her hand, not because she was still holding his but because the broken bones had decided they would not move. "I cannot believe it, the blood of the Uchiha must run thick through his veins Mikoto this means that he is cap-" The rest of what he said could not be heard as the previously very quiet baby started to scream, and wildly move in the hands of the midwife.

Slowly the eyes started to spin and fade away as the color of the baby's eyes turned to their normal color. But unlike all the other Uchiha instead of brown eyes they were slowly turning green, vibrant emerald green. They were bright, as bright as the sun and they looked so beautiful.

"What will be his name?" the midwife asked after the baby seemed to calm down.

Mikoto looked at Fugaku and decidedly said "His name will be Haru, Uchiha Haru."

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><p><strong>AN<strong>: And so ends chapter one! A short chapter but I am sure the next chapter will probably be a bit longer likely 5k or something. Pacing will not be fast for the few first chapters but they will be the most important to establish the main rules for this story.

This will not be a SUPER!Harry-that-owns-sannin-after-two-months-of-training, it will certainly take him 5 years. At the very least! He will not be able to insta-gib jounins in his first fight. I detest that, Harry will gradually grow stronger and will find out just how different this life will be, he will make mistakes and stupid decisions. And from those mistakes he will hopefully learn and get better. The story will be told mostly from Harry his point of view but as in this chapter I will sometimes switch between characters if the scene requires it.

I have everything planned up to at least the age of eight. Please review! It makes me giggle and feel all fuzzy inside!

If any of you readers notice a mistake don't be scared to correct me in a review or in a PM, I will and can only appreciate it.

-rewritten in may of 2014


	3. Family bonding time

**Chapter 2: Family bonding time**

Harry was frustrated, he was not frustrated because he could not talk, no that wasn't the problem, he knew he would get those muscles under control within a year… No Harry was frustrated because at the age of too old and 2 days young, Mother Nature decided that babies couldn't eat anything that actually tasted good. He desperately missed his house-elf-made treacle tart, he missed his occasional lemon drop and something like fire whiskey seemed to have become nothing more than a dream. Perhaps Harry was spoiled when it came to food. He'd become a chef in a restaurant for a few years back in England after all

Harry had become used to be somewhat recognized, even after centuries his name meant something. People looked at him for answers when they were at their wits end. Not because he was the smartest wizard around, nor because he was the wisest. But because he was Harry Potter, and for a long time that had meant something.

But he was Harry Potter no longer.

No these muggles for some reason did not recognize the most famous wizard since Gilderoy Lockhart; they did not know he was well above the legal-drinking-age and it frustrated him. Even though he had sought anonimity before, there were Always people that still knew him, or of him. That was no longer the case.

Breast feeding while having the effect of soothing his 'tummy' was not something Harry felt comfortable doing, for merlin's sake, the woman could have been his great- grand- grand- grand- something- daughter.

And as if that was not bad enough he had to wear a… no he could not even think about it. 'It' was so embarrassing Harry knew he needed 'It' but honestly 'It' was not something that he ever thought he would have to wear again. 'It' itched, very badly and he was sure that he would get a rash somewhere because these muggles seemed like they had no normal 'Its'. No they were nothing like the 'Its' he had bought for Hermione's children and grandchildren, he remembered those things well enough, they were soft and fluffy, they smelled nice before they were used and had flying snitches on them. But no his 'It' was just a grey towel. As if he was living in the dark ages. Perhaps he was, he had no indication of the time period he was living in right now.

His mental destruction of 'It' was put on hold as a boy got closer, Harry still could not see very well. He really needed his glasses or perhaps his sight would get better with age. But he had found a trick, if he forced not-magic into his eyes he could see extremely clear, he could see so clear he could see people move before they actually did, he was sure Professor Trelawney would have been very proud of him.

So after forcing the not-magic into his eyes he could clearly see that it was the boy named 'Sasuke', apparently this Sasuke was his 'older' brother. The irony of this fact didn't go unnoticed. The five year old looked at Harry with awe apparent on his face and decided to pick Harry up.

That was another thing that frustrated Harry, he had no say, what so ever, over his own body. People would pick him up when they wanted to, no matter what state Harry was in. At the moment his 'It' was filled with the goo he was fed earlier and it, yet again, frustrated Harry deeply, to think that the master of Death had fallen so far after being not-dead. It was at that exact moment, as Sasuke picked him up, he decided he would, if ever he would meet Death again, curse his ass so hard he would be sorry he was even created by his king.

But for now Harry had to act like the baby he was, it would not do for him to become a freak again, while apparently pushing not-magic into his eyes was something that his 'parents' seemed to think was a good thing, so he did not have to bother not to do that whenever he felt like it, like now.

"You are really cute Haru-chan, I like your sharingan!" Sasuke seemed to gush out, at moments like this Harry felt like he was some sort of cute baby that was doted on, only to realize a few moments later that he was exactly that, a cute baby that was being doted on. So to keep up with his act Harry decided to make some sort of laughing sound which in turn caused Sasuke to comment on his actions "Awww, little brother likes it when Sasuke holds him and talks with him, right Haru-chan?"

"Hell yeah, and while you are at it, you could change my 'It' because I am not sure if I like it being all wet _down there_." Harry tried to say, but it came out as nothing more than a set of indefinable noises. That seemed to motivate Sasuke to continue talking

"Aww, Haru-chan, I will be a good big brother to you like big brother Itachi is to me! I will help you train shuriken and I will play ninja with you and I will play…" Sasuke kept on talking as Harry decided to tune him out he had been doing that a lot the last two days.

Harry decided to close his eyes and doze off, the soft humming sound of Sasuke's voice helping him drift off to sleep.

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><p>After being reborn into this crazy muggle family that seemed to enjoy feeding him gross goo that tasted like… well let's just say that gross goo was an appropriate name for the food they were shoving down his throat while trying to convince him the spoon was some sort of boat that went, as his new mother called it "Tuuuhht tuhht, come on Haru-chan, be a good boy and open up, the boat needs to dock!" Harry having no choice but to eat the gross goo that passed for food opened his mouth and swallowed it whole. He could not help but stare at the real food, while trying to swallow another spoon full of the orange colored goo. On the table, he recognized some of the food from his vacations to Japan and other parts of Asia, and he had to admit the Miso-ramen looked delicious!<p>

So Harry being the smart forty day old baby that he was pointed at the Miso-ramen and tried to say "Feed me that please!"

Mikoto looked at Harry and turned on her 'I- am- talking- to- a- baby- voice' "Do you want to taste some ramen, Haru-chan?" and after seeing harry trying to heavily nod yes she put the baby food down to get a table spoon, only to be puked on by the baby that seemed to have gotten nauseous from the heavy nodding.

"Eww Haru-chan that is gross! You cannot puke all over Kaa-san! "Sasuke yelled in horror.

"Bloody hell, it's not my fault now is it, this goo is too gross to hold inside! I need real food! Give me my treacle tart, please." Harry tried to say but once again his speech was not comprehended by the two Uchiha's. and Mikoto while still covered in his previous meal picked Harry up from his stool, held him against her and rubbed his back while walking him to his crib, 'sometimes', Harry thought as he calmed down, 'it's not too bad in here.'

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><p>After three months Harry finally managed to use some of his muscles more properly, he could turn while he was lying on his back to lay on his stomach, he could lift his head up and all the while he was being praised by the Uchiha clan as some sort of a once in a lifetime prodigy.<p>

Even his biggest brother, a boy named Itachi seemed to be impressed and spend a lot of time with the youngest Uchiha of the village.

"You know Haru-chan, I am happy you were born, little Sasuke now finally has someone to play with when he is not allowed out of the compound." Itachi said while he was looking to the full moon outside and holding Harry in his lap. And so they sat like that for what seemed like hours until Itachi spoke up again.

"You will have a difficult life Haru-chan, such high expectations will be put on you, and I am afraid you will not even have the time to enjoy your childhood the same way Sasuke does, silly little brother that he is." Harry looked up at this, his eyes turning into the famous Sharingan, Harry had not needed to amp up his eyes with not-magic as forcefully as he had to a month ago and so he had started to use the not-magic in his eyes more often, Harry understood now that somehow his eyes could be normal and green or he could go in to a special mode and turn his eyes into something called the Sharingan and they would look blood red, and apparently he was not the only one, a select few in his 'clan' seemed to have these eyes as well. They helped him understand the world around a whole lot better.

They helped him remember, make connections between what he saw before and what he could see now. Itachi's face, he was worried yet content. These eyes gave him an insight not even magic could've given him so easily.

"Sometimes little Haru, I think you understand me. Silly thoughts, right? Perhaps I am cracking under the pressure of our clan, I am tired Haru, let's sleep." Itachi looked so sad, Harry thought while he looked at the ten year old boy.

Harry wondered if he could help the boy somehow, but first he needed to let the boy sleep. Harry closed his eyes and decided to stay still; it was then that Harry promised to be the best possible brother to the Uchiha children. It did not take long for Fugaku to come home that evening to the endearing scene of his eldest and youngest son sleeping in front of the window.

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><p>Harry finally succeeded in two of his goals for this month, month four was the month in which Harry not only managed to utter out a word! But also the month in which he managed to stand on two legs, though he had to admit that those three seconds of standing up straight were pure bliss, when he had tried to walk he fell down face first and he could not help but cry, obnoxiously loud.<p>

Thankfully Fugaku came rushing to him and picked him up to comfort him, Harry's face had streaks of tears running down his cheeks and there was blood seeping out of his nose.

"Hurts" Harry said, startling his second biological father, who did not know that baby's, that were actually older than three hundred years, could talk after only four months. Forgetting about the blood and tears for a whole second, Fugaku stared at the boy in amazement, 'this boy truly was a genius, how else could a boy of merely a few months talk?'

"Damn." Fugaku said more to himself than to Harry ,who was amazed as well, not because he could speak, no he had practiced a lot on that and knew it would not be long before he would succeed in his endeavor.  
>No, the boy-that-was-reborn-in-some-sort-of-muggle- family was amazed by how the sudden rush his not-magic made him feel, his not-magic, that once felt threatening, seemed to flood his head. He could feel a soft tingling in his nose stopping the bleeding. Perhaps the not-magic was sentient, for Harry was sure he hadn't commanded it to do so.<p>

Fugaku placed the boy on his chair and started to wipe away the blood, not thinking about why it wasn't bleeding anymore. Fugaku made hushing sounds as he tried to calm Harry, who looked to be in shock, down "Shh, Haru-chan, it is alright, you just fell, just hush..."

A door slammed open and Mikoto rushed into the room launching a series of questions at Fugaku "What happened to him? Is he alright? Why does he look like th- ? Is that BLOOD?"

"He's alright Miko, he just fell, see? There is nothing wrong with him." and as Harry's second biological father said that, Harry snapped out of his shock-like-state and decided to ease the tension in the room by letting out a giggle, 'oh the joys of being a four month old baby' Harry thought to himself as he saw his parents' look of worry disappear and a look of relief take hold.

"He said his first word, Miko" Fugaku said to his wife while he was petting his youngest son.

Mikoto looked expectedly at the father of her children, "Well, tell me what he said!" she practically cried out in frustration as Fugaku seemed to take his time telling her.

"Hurts" Fugaku's face showed some kind of mix between sadness and joy. To think that his son, after only four months would start to talk was something amazing, but that his first word had been a word that expressed pain was not something he had wanted for the boy.

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><p>At dinner that night the entire family was sitting down on the ground enjoying their meal, Mikoto shared with her two other boys that Harry had already said his first word and asked them how their days were, this caused Sasuke to launch his story about his own day in an avalanche of words at the rest of the family.<p>

"Well, I went to the academy today and Iruka-sensei was talking about how it would only be one more year before we get to be taught how to throw a kunai! And it was really hard to listen to sensei because Shi-"and here Sasuke paused, rolling his eyes up as if thinking about something, and then continued as if he never took a break "kamaru was sleeping in the seat next to me and he was snoring and it was really annoying and then Naruto stood up and said he was going to be the best at throwing kunai because he was going to be Hokage! But that is stupid, right father? Because he is really dumb and is the lowest in class, he can hardly write so I think he cannot be a Hokage because a Hokage is the smartest, bestest, fastest and most awesomest ninja of the village and Naruto is none of that, he is just a dobe!" Sasuke finished his tirade and took a bite out of his dango-stick.

"Sasuke!" His mother chastized the boy. "It is unbecoming to speak so unkind of people, especially when they're not here to defend themselves. I think it is wonderful thing that the boy has a dream." Mikoto preached to Sasuke before she dropped the two wooden sticks she was feeding herself with.

"As Uchiha we are lucky, you are lucky. Not everyone has that, not everyone has an entire clan behind them. Still, he can dream of becoming a great person. Just like I dream of my boys becoming strong ninja." Mikoto paused, while Sasuke looked at her defiantly. "Don't you have a dream, Sasuke? Something you wish?"

Sasuke looked at his mother and Harry could see him thinking as his face had a pensive look engraved upon it.

It was Itachi however that spoke up "My dream is that we all can live our lives without pain, without hatred, I would be very happy in a world like that."

Everyone was silent after that, everyone but one tiny baby.

"Good! Good!" Harry exclaimed as hard as his squeaky voice could manage. And everyone but Fugaku started to laugh, but Harry looked around with a confused look on his face which seemed to encourage the Uchiha family even more and Sasuke even rolled over the floor while holding his belly. Harry was glad he could lighten up the mood some.

Fugaku was a very composed man, to the entire village he was the epitome of a ninja, he was silent and seemingly deadly loyal to the Hokage but above all this he was a father and husband, and while he was eating dinner with his family nothing else mattered, not even Uchiha honor, at home he let loose the tight reign he had held on his emotions all day, and he let out a smile that seemed very out of place to every ninja or villager that had seen him, but to his family, it was as if that smile meant they were home.

Rewritten 7-2014


	4. Chambers of Secrets

**Chapter 3: Chambers of Secrets**

Lit only by the thin beams of sunshine that illuminated particles of dust that were floating in the air. You could see a chamber, that was located 250 feet under the ground and that was only accessible if one knew there was a crack in a wall that was just wide enough to enter through. The crack in the wall was hidden by a tree which in turn was planted there solely for the reason of hiding that secret entrance. One would be hard pressed to continue after entering the hollowed out space because of a multitude of genjutsu that were placed there to turn people away.

Sometimes though, children or little animals found the place and after entering without knowing how to dispel the genjutsu's, they ran in irate fear out of the hollowed out hall that lead to the chamber. These unfortunate souls had to gasp for air once they passed the tree that so cleverly dispelled any genjutsu placed on anyone with low chakra reserves.

It was quite the ingenious hideout created by three people that had every reason to stay hidden. For if anyone heard the plots that were created, the people that would be sacrificed in name of the village and secrets that were openly discussed. They would most certainly be executed on the spot by ninja's that were hidden around the entrance, only to turn up with a note that said goodbye to their loved ones.

At the very moment that, somewhere else in Konoha, a family was having dinner, the chamber was occupied by three individuals that were without a doubt some of the most cunning and oldest ninja in the village. Not many, not even the third hokage, were able to surpass them in playing behind the scenes while staying in the spotlight that was named the council.

The first to speak was a woman, with hair tightly pulled back in a bun on her head, one would think that such a fragile looking person would be completely harmless but this could not be more of a lie."The jinchuriki is spending too much time with the Hiruzen." she said in a tone that told everyone that there was no discussion to take place, what she announced was the truth and if you did not agree you would be the target of a wrath so chilling one would die from the frostbite alone.

"I agree" said a man that seemed just as fragile and harmless as the woman, but he as well was not someone to trifle with. Not because he was a particularly strong or swift ninja, no, though he was both. It was because he was a master of the most powerful art there existed in a village like Konoha, the art of politics. "We should alienate him from our old teammate." The man said with a cold and calculated look on his voice. "We should make him a target of the hatred that lies in the heart of men that have lost family or riches to the nine tailed fox, that would certainly make him wary of the protection the Third can give him. Making his loyalty to Sarutobi waver, making him easier to mold when the time comes. We need a weapon when Iwa comes marching. We need a weapon with hatred in him to unleash the terror that is the Kyuubi on our enemies." with this said he turned his eyes to the third person, and perhaps most dangerous person that was present.

"It shall be arranged." the one eyed man stated. "However, the demon container is not our most pressing problem."

"What are you talking about, Danzo?" the wrinkled woman asked, the wrinkles seemed to tell a story that held back no details, it told a story of a long life lived to the fullest, a life that had experienced not only happiness and joy but also pain and grief. A life that remained strong even with the blows time had dealt. "What could possibly be a more pressing issue than the weapon?"

Danzo remained silent but he took out a two files from under his robes and gave them to his co-conspirators.

A full minute passed while the other two were reading the thick files, they made no noises that could give away their opinion about what they read and their faces remained blank, the only thing that could give away either of them was actually reading the file were the fast movements their eyes made from right to left.

"Are you sure this information is correct?" Homaru asked, knowing that it was a question that would not get an answer he liked.

"Yes, my agent confirmed this information personally to me." Danzo answered, "I believe this is either an opportunity worth seizing or a problem that should be taken care of as soon as possible"

The other two remained silent at this. Until the woman spoke with that same voice as she always used in this room "We shall have to keep our eyes on this particular case, if by the time he makes genin and is not within our influence, we shall have to… take care of him. Perhaps the old one could be of use. As a Senju she has a particular dislike for the Uchiha after all."

* * *

><p>Harry was playing with his toes, which might have been strange if it weren't for the fact that he was sitting in a stroller and listening to his brother ranting about his schoolday. By now eight months had passed since his birth. Harry enjoyed his infantile life; perhaps a bit too much. There was something very luxurious about being served as if he were a king.<p>

People carried him from place to place. His mother washed his hair. His father pushed his stroller when they were taking a walk. His brothers answered his every beck and call. He got fed every few hours. Was given a nice warm bottle of milk whenever he was about to get thirsty.

Yes, life as a baby was beyond comfortable.

But there were downsides. No one really cared about his opinion. Or expected him to have one. Of course, with time that would change; and he had plenty of time. But still, it would have been nice of someone to ask him what he thought of something.

Not that Harry didn't say what he thought; it's just that before a few days ago he couldn't really form sentences. At least not coherently. He had practiced a lot. Truthfully it was quite entertaining to start answering in English while the people around him thought he was just making noises. His great grand uncle had been cussed out quite sublimely when the old fart, smelling of just that, tried to pick him up. Thankfully no one in this village seemed to understand English.

Still, the whisperings of the adults around him quite often included the word prodigy. While it was entirely too amusing to hear people talk about a baby with such high expectations it felt like he was misleading these people that saw the face of someone else when they looked at him. He wasn't a child after all.

No child his age should've got the awareness he had already developed. You see, Harry had already gathered that he was in a village called Konoha, a ninja village that earned money by performing missions. The village was run by a man named 'the Third, or Hokage'.

His clan didn't seem to like the man. Or the village council for that matter. But perhaps it was like the prime minister back in England; no one liked the guy, but they still supported him. Though there was a lot of negativity when his clan spoke of the village or those who run it. Something about being imprisoned like traitors. It didn't make sense to Harry, not yet anyway.

Harry was distracted from playing with his toes when his brother, which up to then had been talking to him nonstop stopped pushing the stroller. Harry looked up when he was attack by pink and blonde strands of hair. "Oh my, he's so cute! Sasuke."

"Learn some manners forehead." The blonde hair seemed to push the pink hair away. It was quite the sight to behold. "Sasuke-kun. Is this your little brother?"

Sasuke, who had been quite talkative seemed to turn mute. "hn."

Was his little big brother feeling uncomfortable? Sasuke looked away from the two girls and was ready to start pushing the stroller again. But Harry had other plans. Nothing was quite as entertaining as seeing Sasuke uncomfortable; there was something about the boy's face that made him entirely too amusing when he was annoyed.

Harry used his recently gained skill in forming sentences to keep the attention of the girls on his brother. "Sasuke, my brother." Harry cheerfully uttered out while trying to reach for Sasuke as if wanting to hug him.

Sasuke's cheeks turned a shade of pink not unlike the girls hair. Before either girl could react Sasuke pushed the stroller with speeds that the stroller obviously wasn't made for. The road was clearly not well paved for the bumps in it made Harry remember the few times he had sat on Buckbeaks' back.

* * *

><p>When Konoha was build the Uchiha had gotten their own district. At the time it did not seem all that special, the Uchiha were a big clan after all and always felt that they deserved their own special place in the village, it was only natural that they got it.<p>

Nowadays the Uchiha council of elders were a bitter bunch and talked little about anything other than how Konoha mistreated their clan and had all but alienated them from the rest of the village.

However today was a day in which none of the elders talked about the unfairness of the kage and his council, today they were talking about a certain prodigal boy that had been born just eight months ago.

"I think we should train him as soon as possible, he will be a valuable asset to us once we take over Konoha!" a man said while others looked at him in surprise. They were all aware of the latest Uchiha boy born to Fugaku and Mikoto. The boy's learning curve was unprecedented. The council was pretty much divided into three parts. The first section wanted the boy to be tutored in the ways of their clan as soon as possible, have him apprenticed to one of the elders and skip the ninja academy. Another section; the biggest one by just a small margin wanted the boy to be treated like any other prodigy, sending him to the academy at the age of three so he could graduate at the age of six.

"But there was also a small group of old Uchiha's. Uchiha's that had witnessed their share of prodigies. Of promises broken. And they feared the abnormal power this child, no, this baby had already developed.

Meanwhile, Fugaku, who was the current head of clan, had to listen to all sides explaining him what he should do with his son. And it wasn't going so well. Fugaku was a man with a lot of passion, a lot of love for his clan. It was how he was raised, it were the first principles he was taught. But the clan was trying to manipulate him into putting the clan before his children.

He had done that with Itachi. And the boy was miserable. So he had refused to do the same with Sasuke. And now Haru. One child lost to the clan was enough. He couldn't imagine letting another child of his go through the same. He wouldn't stand for it.

"I think that we first need to make him love our clan more than anything, we need to make him loyal to us, there is no saying what a boy with his genius will be capable of and he needs to learn to respect us if we want to control that genius!" said the oldest and probably the most wizened elder of the council. "We have all seen what happened with Orochimaru, that boy was too smart and too ambitious for his own good, not even the hokage could keep him on a leash."

"We should treat the boy the same as we have treated everyone in our clan" cried out a woman. "We can't make the same mistake as with Itachi, that boy, while a genius, is nothing more than another soldier. No; we need this kid to be like us, like a real Uchiha! Let him apprentice under me, I will guide him, teach him."

After this was announced the entire council seemed to explode with men and women alike yelling at eachother.

"Enough!" bellowed out a man with a voice so loud it dwarfed all other voices. "My son, will walk the path of a ninja as soon as he will turn four years old, he will join the new recruits at the academy and he will be rookie of the year in another two years perhaps even one year if he is motivated enough." Fugake said resolutely "My sons are all Uchiha, and as Uchiha they belong the to the best there are among ninja and that will mean that once I've taken over as Hokage they will be my soldiers. They will obey me as I am their father, and they will obey me as I will be their Hokage as will you all. This council should not interfere with how I raise my children, I will not tolerate that." Fugaku looked the all in the eye, one by one. His leadership could not be questioned, even if it meant he would have to sacrifice his son for the clan. Perhaps one day, Haru would forgive him.

No one uttered a word and all looked down, some in regret, some in spite, after feeling the fury in the voice of the youngest councilman among them.

"Now, I want to talk about our coupe…"

* * *

><p>At just a week shy of nine months, Harry had managed to sneak out into the garden. Harry knew that his non-magic loved the nature around was somewhat of a connection between it and the world around him.<p>

With his little legs he couldn't quite walk yet, but he could wobble with great skill. His parents had a house the size of a small castle. Despite his adventures inside the house he had yet to discover all the rooms. Harry knew there were some hidden ones; the house simply looked so much bigger from the outside than the inside. Yet, his parents home, 'his own home' he reminded himself, wasn't the thing he was interested in right now.

For a few weeks now Harry had felt the urge to go exploring, and so he did the first time he was left alone. He was sure that he was quite the sight to behold, hardly a year old and already searching for adventures. But there was just something, it was calling out to him. Calling out to his not-magic. When Harry passed the large tree, a tree that had been disfigured by a few hundred ninja weapons. he knew this was the place. His eyes narrowed, his lips parted into a grin, his hand reached for the small branch that laid in front of him.

For his not-magic had found him a wand.

Rewritten: 6-2014


	5. The Weasel, The wizard and the Cupboard

**AN**: This chapter did not like it's original name: "The return of the emo" so after telling Chapter Four that I would rename it, it was so happy it did not hear me calling it The Weasel, The wizard and the Cupboard so do not tell It that that is Its name.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: The Weasel, The wizard and the Cupboard<strong>

It was hot, and the humidity was high in the land of Fire. Villagers of Konoha were somewhat resilient to the heat, as they had grown accustomed to it over the years. But even they were complaining about the weather this day. Men and women of all ages walked around in white, as was custom on days like these. The few people that didn't wear white either had their clothing stained by their own sweat or didn't wear much clothing at all.

"Grandpa, can I take off my shirt? It's too hot and sticky" a boy said to the elderly looking man that was walking beside him. The man and his grandson were walking around the village. It was a most familiar sight to the villagers of Konoha, because the two did so almost daily. The old man was not as tall as he used to be, and his hair was no longer auburn but the kind of grey you'd expect old and wise wizards to have.  
>The man was draped in a white cloak, with red accents. The fabric looked expensive, thick and heavy yet smooth and soft to touch. The boy the man was walking with gladly pulled on his grandfathers' sleeve to make sure he was heard.<p>

The sight of these two people made the villagers feel safe, because the elderly looking man was not just any person, no. The man was none other than Hiruzen 'God of shinobi' Sarutobi. A man that perhaps one of the oldest shinobi still alive. Yet the years of war and violence this man had lived through hadn't made him unkind. And so a man famed for his ability to lay waste to entire battlegrounds by himself smiled at his grandson with a face that didn't match his fearsome legend. "Of course Konohamaru, be sure not to lose it though, I will not buy you another shirt this week" the man said with a chuckle afterwards.

As the man and boy kept walking through the streets of Konoha, nearing their destination, they were suddenly cut off by a boy that was running extremely fast. This wasn't uncommon. They lived in a village that housed ninja, sometimes things like that happened. However the boy accidently knocked Konohamaru off his feet in his haste.

The running boy stopped at once and held a hand out to Konohamaru as to help him get back up his feet. "Sorry, I was in a rush and did not look where I was going." The boy said politely while still holding out his hand toward the fallen boy. "Are you all right?"

"Argh" the boy gave as response.

"I am sure he is in perfect health Uchiha-san" The hokage smiled warmly at the tired looking boy.

"Hokage-sama!" said Itachi immediately straightening himself. "I was actually going towards your office... Sir." Itachi looked flustered, something that was an uncommon sight.

"Now now, Uchiha-san no need to be so formal while I am off duty" The man said while helping his grandson up. "I have a clone in the office, feel free to report to him, and take your time. Your last mission could not have gotten such important intelligence that you would have to run like you are being chased, right?" the man asked while his left eyebrow was slowly rising.

"Of course Hokage-sama" Itachi responded while bowing his head, first to the Hokage and then to the Hokage's grandson. "I shall report to the clone in your office at once" And to any onlooker he seemed to disappear in a gust of wind and swirling leaves.

"Who was that, grandpa?" Konohamaru asked while dusting of his pants, that had gotten dirty while falling on the ground.

"Ahh" said the old man "That would have been Uchiha Itachi, Konohamaru. Are you ready to walk again I want to be at the bookstore before it closes for the day" Hoping his grandson would follow him, the old man started to walk the bookshop that held the latest book written by one of his faithful students.

* * *

><p><strong>Earlier that week<strong>

Itachi was a valuable asset to Konoha, this he knew. He was a capable jounin and anbu-member without the notoriety that some of the bigger names had gathered over their years. So while he had finished the three assassinations he was tasked with in Water Country, two of which were off the record, Itachi felt comfortable enough to take off his anbu-mask.

On his way back to Konoha, Itachi needed to visit a few of Konoha's spies in Kirikagure to collect their monthly reports. With a tug on his chakra Itachi weaved a genjutsu around himself, hiding in a cloak of illusions.

* * *

><p>Itachi had almost arrived at the hidden village of the Mist when he noticed that he was being followed. Not wanting to reveal his knowledge about his follower, Itachi decided to keep on walking without looking like he was paying much attention to his surroundings. His genjutsu wasn't canceled, so whoever was following him must have acces to a technique capable of seeing through genjutsu, making the list of people that could possibly trailing him at the moment pretty small.<p>

He managed to walk for another four minutes when all of the sudden, but not surprisingly, Itachi was assaulted from behind by his follower. It was nothing special, a mere kunai, but Itachi reacted instantly with a 'Kawarimi' so that the kunai hit not him but the wooden log that, so conveniently, was lying nearby.

Locking in on his assailant with the famed eyes that only the Uchiha possessed, he could see that his attacker had one patched eye and very light colored hair. The man, for it was obviously not a woman, had a lithe body- which meant the man was obviously well trained to hold such strength in such a thin body. And Itachi, not being a person that asked questions first and attacked later, used a shunshin to get behind the one eyed man and in one swift move held his sword to the men's throat while placing a kunai against the man's back stopping the man from moving unless he wanted a sword in his spleen or an open throat.

"Who sent you?" Itachi asked with coldness in his voice that would have sent shivers down his younger brother's spines.

"I was sent to test you, Itachi-san" the man said with a smug look on his face "and you failed the test" he added as he slowly turned into water revealing that he was a mere water-bunshin.

"It seems" a voice started to say from behind a nearby tree "that not even the famed Sharingan is all see-" the voice that belonged to the hidden ninja stopped as it suddenly could not push air out of his lungs.

"That is a most inaccurate observation, Ao 'the blue sensor'." Itachi said, having discovered the identity of the ninja that had shadowed him. "I believe it is you who does not see all, who does not perceive reality as it is."

"Tell me who sent you to, as you put it, test me." the young boy said to the man that was easily twice his age. As Ao did not answer Itachi, Itachi pressed on. To onlookers it was as if Itachi was merged with the tree that had once hidden the Kiri-ninja. Itachi held his kunai in front of Ao's left and only visible eye. "I will not repeat my question again, I suggest you start talking." the boy advised.

"Ha, I guess I was wrong then, you pass." Ao said with a glint of amusement in his eye despite the kunai that promised to remove said glint in an instant.

Itachi didn't lower his kunai and held still. He was having an internal debate whether to let the men free or first get more information out of him. Deciding the latter was more likely the one which would lead to the quickest answers Itachi asked the man another question. "Why would you need to test me?"

The man snorted "Ngh, you young folk, so distrusting and impatient, let me go and I will explain everything to you while we walk to the Mizukage for further instructions"

* * *

><p>Ao looked at the young boy that was walking next to him, the boy had talent, he could see that without his, cleverly hidden behind an eye-patch, Byakugan. The Uchiha was walking only half a step behind Ao so he could keep his eyes on the man. It was almost too obvious the boy did not trust him, at all.<p>

"I was sent to test you, because Mizukage-sama asked." He tried to decipher the look on the younger boy but it did not give away any emotion or thoughts. Which was something Ao could respect. But then again, Konoha shinobi were often well trained if they got mission that went beyond the borders of the Land of Fire.

"What if I had failed?" asked Itachi while locking his eyes on the man's face. Obviously trying to get more out of this question than would be probable if he was not a trained ninja.

"Well, you did not fail the test, so let's not think about that shall we?" Ao responded evasively.  
>'Still, he's so young... But he went past my detection barriers without me noticing him. If it wasn't for Mizukage-sama, I never would've found him', Ao quickened his pace, wanting to reach the village before sunset, 'Why doesn't Mizukage-sama want him captured? It was a question that had bothered him since he was sent to look for this child, and how did Mizukage-sama know that the boy would come along willingly?'<p>

"So tell me about yourself Uchiha Itachi, how old are you, you do not look a day older than twelve"

"Does it matter, Ao?" the boy asked in return.

"A better question would be, Itachi-san, " Ao said while chuckling "Why does it matter?" Ao looked at the boy and continued "A ninja with experience would have asked that question, you are just a boy, you do not understand yet how to get the most information out of someone as skilled as me, so let me give you a bit of advice." Putting on a different tone Ao started his lecture "Ask no questions that can be answered with yes or no, a lie could be told in the one second they answer without you noticing the signs which give away their dishonest answer"

"Are you implying, Ao 'the blue sensor', that I would not be able to spot a lie the moment it is said" the boy said with an innocence that didn't match his glaring eyes. "My Sharingan is superior to your prize of theft."

Ao could not help but feel chastised by the boy; however it was the next sentence that startled the man more than anything Itachi had done or shown previously.

"My sharingan perceives reality as it is, Ao-san, it can see the stolen white eye and all its flaws. You who thinks he is superior does not know reality as I do. To me, you are but a child that blindly plays in a world he does not see." Itachi preached with such truthfulness and conviction that it made Ao, a man easily thrice the age of Itachi, feel as if he was a toddler that just learned that the pretty snow in winter burned his skin with its coldness. Disillusioned Ao quickened his pace once more and decided that it would be better to stop this conversation while he still felt competent.

* * *

><p>Entering the office of the Mizukage, Itachi felt a shiver run down his spine; it was as if he was being watched by a thousand eyes at once. Getting over his discomfort Itachi walked further into the room, stopping seven feet in front of the Mizukage's desk, as was appropriate between villages with peace treaties.<p>

Knowing that he had to wait for the Mizukage to start talking Itachi stood there ready to move at the slightest hint of killing intent, keeping a leash on his feelings like a guard had a leash on a dog; Itachi managed to look as if he was bored.

Hearing Ao closing the door behind him, Itachi felt that the hundreds of eyes that were once aimed at him were slowly averting their looks, making Itachi feel a little bit more at ease until he heard two voices speaking to him as if they were one.

"Hello, Uchiha Itachi." they said with contempt. "How good to see that you managed to come here on such a short notice, tell us, what do you know of your fathers plan to overthrow your Hokage?" A man with a flame- motive- mask was walking towards Itachi, revealing not just the sharingan, but the infamous Mangekyou Sharingan.

It was that exact moment in time, the instant those words had left their mouths, the instant he saw that cursed eye, that Itachi knew his life was to change, and most likely not for the better.

* * *

><p>Back in Konoha Harry had picked up the stick that had been on the ground, next to the only tree that could be found in the garden of his parents. Oh, how he had missed having a wooden object in his hands. He knew it would never feel as magical and alive as his faithful wands used to feel. But after living for so long Harry had felt naked the last eight months without a wooden pointy object in his pockets.<p>

If only the Daily Prophet could see Him now. He was sure that headlines would be written that would surely test his patience. 'Boy- who- lived's stick fetish apparent at fragile age of nine months! 'or 'Boy- Who- Lived deliriously happy after finding a twig; has the man finally gone insane?' or worse 'Harry Potter turning dark after having his hopes crushed?'.

Knowing it would most likely do nothing Harry waved the stick in his hands and said, with practiced precision, the first spell he had ever learned from the most enthusiastic teacher that had ever graced the halls of Hogwarts "Wingardium Leviosa".

Nothing happened, absolutely nothing. Harry threw the stick away in anger and turned around looking for a nice dark place to sulk, and thus did not notice that the sprig, that was once just a dead piece of wood, had suddenly grown twice its size and had leaves sprouting all over it. And he never would notice it even if he bothered to look for it because after the branchlet had fallen to the ground. A small dog named Akamaru picked it up and decided that it was the perfect piece of wood to chew on.

* * *

><p>Sasuke was sitting alone in the garden; Itachi was away on a mission. Mother was drinking tea at the Hyuuga's and would not return until much later that day. Father was, as was usual on Fridays, at the council meeting. And his little brother... he did not want to think about his little brother.<p>

Little Harry, while always nice had just been mean to Sasuke. It was so unfair! Sasuke thought. Just earlier that afternoon Sasuke had searched for Little Harry, and the boy had been so hard to find too! So he had looked for a really long time and after finding him his little brother had said that Sasuke had to leave him alone. Sasuke in his anger said had said he hated Haru, using the boy's real name to annoy him, stormed out of the room and smashed the door of the cupboard under the stairs shut leaving his little eight month old brother alone, just as he wanted to be. Good riddance!

It is just not fair, Sasuke thought, Sasuke was always there to play with little Harry if he wanted to play so, so should little Harry always be there for Sasuke.

Sasuke was throwing pebbles in the lake while angrily kicking everything he could. After kicking a large boulder Sasuke decided that perhaps he should not be kicking everything, no, like a good ninja he should utterly destroy the stone as punishment with his 'Goukakyuu no Jutsu', not that he was any good at that jutsu yet, but still, on pure principle Sasuke should get his revenge. No stone had the right to make Sasuke, an Uchiha, feel pain.

It was exactly that sight that Harry walked in on, Harry looked in amazement and horror as he saw, for the very first time since his fight with Voldemort in the atrium of the ministry of magic, someone breathing fire.

Harry felt his not-magic exploding, as his mind suddenly was flooded by visions of his past.

-Voldemort holding his hand in front of his mouth, his tongue sticking out while he released fire in the form of a snake.-

-Lucius Malfoy turned around, his lips spread into a thin smile. Green light followed, his love died.-

-The sea parted, and an enormous creature seemed to glow with power.-

-He was in Russia, a blonde man was fighting him with a fervor not unlike his own. But he released his own brand of magic and let the man be dragged into Hell.-

-Death stood before him, and in an attempt to stop him from departing changed into Ginny, his world stopped spinning.-

Harry fainted.

* * *

><p>"Harry! Harry! Please wake up, please wake up" a panicked voice cried loudly while tears were falling on the face of the tiny boy laying on the ground with a look of horror engraved on his face.<p>

Harry could hear the voice and wondered what was going on, the last thing he remembered was.. Sasuke breathing fire! Panic arose in Harry and he was scared, it was an irrational fear but it still took hold. Scared for his life because he knew that it might be possible that if he was reborn than so may have Voldemort, and if Sasuke was Voldemort reborn, he would have to kill the boy fast or be killed once he figured out who Harry was and the only way to do that was if he tried to use his wandless magic which he had not tried to use yet in this body.

So Harry's eyes flew open and he said the only word he was sure of that would surprise Voldemort enough to reveal himself momentarily "Tom?"

* * *

><p>Sasuke had finally succeeded in the grand fire ball jutsu, though it wasn't all that grand... or ball-ish... He knew that his father would be so proud of him, father would finally tell Sasuke that he as well was a son worth to be proud of! But before Sasuke could celebrate his achievement he heard the agonizing sound of his youngest brother screaming.<p>

Sasuke looked around wondering where the scream came from and why his annoying little brother that did not want to play with him was making such noise. But Sasuke knew something was wrong as he saw the tiny frame of a nine month old collapsing. He rushed over to the place where his little brother was probably dying at that very moment.

Once he reached his destination Sasuke could see the face of his little brother and it looked as if he had been scared to death and Sasuke's panic grew to new heights. Shaking the boy did not wake him up, a slap in the face did not wake him up! Calling out to him did NOT WAKE HIM UP! So Sasuke started to sob and call out to him pleadingly to wake up, but he was sure that his little brother, the boy he was mad at and said he hated, had died.

But suddenly the boys eyes opened and with a look so intense Sasuke cringed, said the weirdest three letter word Sasuke had ever heard "Tom?"

* * *

><p>The clone in the Hokage's office dispelled itself after telling Itachi he would have to deal with this in person.<p>

It took only three seconds before Hiruzen 'God of Shinobi' Sarutobi appeared in a gust of wind and swirling leafs in front of the Uchiha boy. And after activating the seals that would keep everything that was said in this room from being heard by people outside of it and placing an orange book on his desk stroking it lovingly, the hokage said with a solemn voice that betrayed the seriousness of the coming conversation "Tell me everythi-" only to be interupted by a chakra spike so intense it broke through the seals that were placed on the hokage's office.

* * *

><p><strong>AN<strong>: What did you all think about the little twist with the wand I put in? I absolutely enjoyed writing it!  
>This chapter was perhaps the chapter with the most clues about things that will happen in the not so distant future, I believe some of them were hidden quite well, others? Not so much.<p>

Anyone else having a sense of Doom that Orochimaru is actually Voldemort? Because I heard from Kabuto, and he told me this in confidence so do not tell anyone else, that Orochimaru takes great pleasure in placing his soul in other people, sounds familiar right! I'm sure I am on to something here.

Rewritten: 7-2014


	6. Burn, babyburn

**AN**: wow, last chapter has gotten the most reviews so far for this story! a whopping 27 of them, Thank you! Please, for those that ask questions in their review, please make sure I can actually PM you to answer those questions with riddles or vague hints.

This chapter will be a special one, so far it is the longest one I have written and it has been Beta'd by the lovely Xhexia, and it features some silly moments, and even an Omake!  
>A shout out to the people that totally hit the nail on its head with the accidental magic:<strong>Never Odd Or eveN<strong> and **gtt**!

People were worried that I would suddenly pull a fast one and actually make orochimaru - Voldemort or Tobi- Dumbledore (which I totally think is possible, they are both too childish!). But worry not, I have no such plans as of yet.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5: Burn, baby-burn.<strong>

In one of the largest private gardens to be found in Konoha, two boys could be found walking towards a large, scorched by fire, stone that was overseeing the pond. The tallest boy picked the smaller boy up and placed him on the stone. The boys did not speak for quite a while.

"You scared me Sasuke" the boy said in a soft whisper. The smallest one of the two boys, named Harry, was trying to spin the truth of the whole situation so that Sasuke would not ask questions he did not want to answer, or know how to answer.

"It was a fire jutsu Harry-chan" Sasuke answered the unsaid question "I am sure if you train hard. You will be able to do things like that with your chakra as well" he said, repeating the same words Itachi had said to him when he had seen Itachi use the 'Goukakyuu no Jutsu'. "It is very difficult, but I trained really hard so I can do it easily now!" the six year old boasted to his three and a half year younger brother.

Harry's mind suddenly put all the puzzle pieces together and now understood some of the things the Uchiha family had talked about in the previous months. So Jutsu was not just martial arts, it was also something more, something magical. But how was that possible? He could not sense the magic radiating of anyone in this village, and Harry had gotten quite good at sensing magic after having lived for as long as he had.

No, it had to be something else, perhaps this chakra thing Sasuke was talking about earlier was something like magic, only different, yes that must be the case Harry was sure of it, but how could he prove that?

"Sasuke, what does chakra feel like?" Harry asked his brother that apparently was not Voldemort reïncarnated. "Does it burn?" Harry asked after seeing his brother looking at him quizzically.

"Uhmm, I do not really know" Sasuke answered truthfully, "I never really thought about feeling chakra but I guess I could try gathering some of my chakra and try to think about how it feels.." The boy that sat next to Harry started to frown and tiny drops of sweat started to appear on his forehead.

Harry could feel it, just a tiny bit but, there was definitively something there, but it was not magic, no what Harry felt was somehow much flimsier, way lighter than the magic he had searched for earlier. If Harry had to compare the two magic was like sweet, sticky honey that had been poured into the air, chakra however was so much lighter it was like misty air, only if he really concentrated on searching for it could he find it. No wonder he had not found it before the differences were like night and day, sour and sweet, Lupin and Umbridge; it could hardly be compared.

Concentrating further on the feeling of Sasuke's chakra he found it strange that it actually felt like, like, and realization hit harry like a cold bucket of water hit a person that was just burned by fire.

It felt like his not-magic did. The well of power that had slowly been spreading where once the calming ocean of magic was, how he could have missed that. But if everyone had a source like that, surely he would have noticed it, how could he not, he could feel his so called 'chakra' as if it was as present as the sun in the sky and the grass on the ground.

That could mean several things, Harry continued in his head but before he got to finish his thoughts Sasuke spoke up.

"It feels like… "Sasuke started, bringing his thumb to his mouth and softly bit it, finishing his previously unfinished sentence with a smug look on his face "chakra" and if Harry had been an anime character he would more likely than not have sweat dropped right that moment.

'Well' Harry thought, 'I guess I should not have thought that a four and a half year old child could provide answers like that.

Sasuke, being the bright child he was, was sure he had just sounded as if he was a wise man, and so continued "You see, chakra feels like chakra just as peanut butter feels like peanut butter and water feels like water" Sasuke clearly thought himself a genius because of that statement and proudly looked down at his little brother.

Harry felt sorry for the boy, such ignorance, to think that he was ever like that kid that sat beside him, brought an eerie feeling forward.

"Brother is so smart!" Harry said, trying to keep the sarcasm from being obvious. "Teach me how to make flames as well, big brother!" Harry demanded of the boy.

"No, you are too young for that Little Harry" Sasuke rebuked still looking smug at his position of power and supposed supreme intelligence, however not even a four year old Sasuke could escape from Harry's manipulations, that had been perfected in a life that no one but Harry had knowledge of.

Harry for the hundredth time since he was reborn used his big emerald green eyes to persuade his older brother. By adding one word, Harry knew he could seal the deal and so with big pleading eyes that were starting to get wet edges he said the magic word of manipulation "please?"

And Sasuke had no choice but to agree to whatever Harry wanted.

"Aww, well okay for this one time I will show you how to do it, but that is all, you are still too young and have too little chakra reserves to actually do anything anyway." Sasuke pulled his hands out of his pockets and said:" Okay the first thing I have to do when I want to use the 'Goukakyuu no Jutsu' is make hand seals, there are a lot of them and you have to train really hard to use them correctly"

Harry activated his sharingan, he knew that the red eyes helped him understand, the power to memorize every muscle movement another person made. Red eyes started spinning while Sasuke was showing Harry the seals, Sasuke took one step behind and held his right hand in front of his mouth a spew out a fire that could easily roast a chicken.

Harry, having copied Sasuke's jutsu, went through the same motions and decided to use a bit of chakra as well, he could feel the chakra building up in his lungs, more and more it just kept on gaining and when Harry felt he could hold it in no longer he blew it all out towards the pond.

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><p>Somewhere in Konoha, lying on a rooftop with an orange book in his hands and a black eye, Hatake Kakashi was reading his newest edition of Icha Icha paradise. Now Hatake Kakashi was not a man that was easily kept away from his smut. However today it was not easy to focus on reading the writings of the super pervert.<p>

Not because it was so incredibly hot today, no, that would never keep Kakashi's eye away from his favorite book series. It was also not because only three minutes ago a young Uchiha boy had stepped on his book while running, only to lose his footing and accidentally knocking the hokage's grandson off his feet. Nor was it the chakra spike just a few moments ago that had distracted the publicly known pervert.

No it was none of the previous annoyances that had stopped Kakashi from reading the last word of the first chapter of the new Icha Icha paradise.

It was the huge explosion of flames at the Uchiha district that made Kakashi look up and decide he would need to investigate.

* * *

><p>Kurenai was relaxing at the hot water springs that were exclusively made for the female ninja of the village of Konoha. She had finally passed her jounin exams, and was so close to chakra exhaustion that she would be surprised if she would be able to create a simple bunshin, and thought that she deserved a bit of luxury to celebrate.<p>

It was for that reason and that reason alone that she did not try to kill the perverted man that had all but jumped her when she had taken her clothes off, no she had let him go with a punch at his only visible eye.

At the moment she was so relaxed she could feel that her eye-lids were getting heavier by the second, and when they finally closed she felt as if the weight of the day had fallen off her shoulders and she knew that within mere seconds she would fall asleep drifting off to dream of epic romances and eating chocolate, but sadly for Kurenai that sleep would not come within mere moments as she was forcefully pulled out of her relaxed state by a chakra spike that exuded panic. It actually made her shudder for a second. Perhaps this feeling could be used in a genjutsu?

Wondering where the spike came from Kurenai quickly dried her body with a towel and put on her clothes, jumping on the roof she realized she had no idea where the feeling had come from as it had seemed as if it came from everywhere. Chastising herself for her curiosity she turned around to return to the lovely – she never got too finish that thought as all of the sudden the sky was filled with flames that looked like they were going to burn the air itself. Readying herself, she set off running to the source of the flames using shunshin, later that day she would be found by a girl with pink hair that started to scream as a woman was hanging in front of her window looking as if she had hang herself. The police that would come, after being alarmed by the pink-haired girls parents, took the woman with them stating there was nothing to be worried about, that it was only a ninja with severe chakra exhaustion.

* * *

><p>Itachi had wondered what the high pitched scream was but figured it could not be as important as his debriefing. Itachi looked around to make sure no one was hidden in the hokage's office and started debriefing.<p>

"After I got close towards the borders of Mizu no Kuni, I noticed I was being followed, it did not take long after noticing that before I was attacked by a man that was named Ao, the only non-Hyuuga to have a byakugan." Itachi said carefully picking his words.

"After a short battle, which I came out of unscathed –" Itachi stopped talking after seeing a huge burst of flames arise in the village, illuminating the hokage's office, up on a closer look Itachi could see that the exact location would most likely be the Uchiha district and with his luck… Itachi looked at the hokage and before he could ask the hokage if he could be dismissed for now to investigate, the hokage barked out: "Follow me!"

The Hokage opened the window and with a speed and fluidity that seemed unnatural for such an old man, he ran towards the source of the attention grabbing event.

* * *

><p>Sasuke was, after showing his amazing fire jutsu, looking at his brother hoping to see an awed look on his face but all he saw were two big red eyes and three dots spinning wildly. The look on Harry's face changed into one of concentration and Sasuke saw Harry moving his little hands in the same way Sasuke had moved them himself, he saw the younger boy inhale and could clearly see his right hand moving toward his mouth.<p>

And for a moment there Sasuke was scared, he felt a gigantic weight pressing down on him; he actually fell to his knees by the sheer pressure of it. And started to gasp for oxygen in the now rarefied air.

He looked up to see Harry, eyes spinning madly as if the dots were trying to chase each other, inhale even more air until he stopped and he could see a small smile form on the lips of the boy. And then his little brother, perhaps the most prodigal child ever born in the Uchiha family tree, exhaled and all was engulfed in flames.

* * *

><p>Uchiha Mikoto had just left the Hyuuga compound and was starting to see the outer walls of the Uchiha district when she felt a chakra so intense that Mikoto could see it caused blood to start dripping out of some of the villagers' ears in the busy shopping district.<p>

Mikoto knew, somehow, that something was wrong with her boys. She ran as fast as she could towards her home, knocking down the front door and running through the hall, only to see her two youngest children sitting on a large stone that overlooked the pond she had come to love so much because unknown to anyone but her, she had hidden her sake bottles there and sometimes in the summer when the boys would go swimming in the lake she could enjoy drinking sake without a bother.

Knowing her two children were safe she decided to observe them, she was so proud of her boys, Itachi had become the youngest Anbu-captain in the history of Konoha and thus was known to most if not all ninja in the village. And Sasuke was so well-loved by everyone and though she would never admit it, she loved Sasuke the most of all her children.

And then little Harry had been born; a little miracle. They hadn't planned for him at all but his birth was a gift. Another prodigal boy that would be such an amazing asset to the Uchiha clan, he could be the one that will become hokage after Fugaku if he continued to grow as rapidly as he was now, and while Mikoto wished her youngest son would have more of a childhood, she knew that sacrifices were necessary in the world of ninja, the boy would be most useful to the clan if he grew up to be a ninja as fast as possible, imagine the status the Uchiha would get if a mere child of four or five years old were to be a genin!

Yes the boy was perhaps the best kept secret weapon of the Uchiha clan and Mikoto was sure that her little Harry would come to understand his role, and how much the clan would appreciate his sacrifice and honor him- her son.

She could see that her boys were currently talking but could not hear what it was about, however she could clearly see that little Harry was somehow trying to persuade his older brother because those big puppy eyes were the perfect tool to get what he wanted. The boy was clearly a born ninja, born with the fully awakened sharingan, and already learning how to manipulate people and to think he was not even a year old; sometimes it frightened her as much as it pleased her.

Apparently little Harry got his way because she could see a huge grin forming on the little kids face. She could see that he had activated his sharingan and that he was intently looking at Sasuke a shocked look crossed Mikoto's face, he was going to use a jutsu!

'Goukakyuu no Jutsu', that was amazing, Mikoto thought. He performed it flawlessly! She felt so proud of her little Sasuke, to think that he could already perform that jutsu while only having been instructed by Fugaku a month ago, she was sure now; all three of her boys were geniuses, even by Uchiha standards.

Mikoto wanted to open the door and congratulate her favorite son at his success when she felt a pressure building, "such massive amounts of dense chakra" Mikoto whispered into thin air. She looked around to see where it came from, only to see her youngest son inhaling air and moving his hand towards his mouth. "No way!" Mikoto cried out as she saw Sasuke fall down to his knees, this was wrong, no child should be able to access such power... it was unnatural.

What she saw next would haunt her for the rest of her life. A huge fire erupted in her garden and she saw the silhouette of her boys in those flames, and then those silhouettes were gone, burned to a crisp.

In a mere second, Mikoto had lost two children.

* * *

><p>Harry exhaled and he could feel the chakra he had so carelessly gathered escaping, suddenly his entire vision was filled with flames, scorching hot flames that burned everyone and everything that it came in touch with, Flames that would not go unnoticed by the ninja in the village and thus would blow his so 'carefully' maintained cover of an innocent and unsuspecting child. Questions would be asked, and he was not sure if these ninja would ask nicely. All that he could do was flee but there was one problem, he could not in good conscience leave the little boy behind that he loved as a brother so he grabbed the six year old that was kneeling beside him and got ready to try and disapparate away.<p>

However before he could think of a location to apparate to, he could feel a strong arm around his waist lifting him and his brother of the ground and pulling them away from the fires Harry had released up on the garden.

* * *

><p>Fugaku knew he had to get out of this session of the elders council. He could feel it in his bones, something big was about to go down and his bones had never been wrong before.<p>

Trying to sneak out of the meeting room however was impossible while it was still in session, everything was locked, and not even a fly could enter this room now, or leave it.

This was why Fugaku was still seated in his chair.

"We need someone to keep track of Danzo" said a man who was sweating profusely, because despite being underground the air was humid and the temperature was perhaps even higher than in the rest of the village. "That man has opposed us too many times in the village council for it to be a mere coincidence; he must have a plan to undermine us, to keep us weak!"

All councilmen and women nodded their head, Fugaku took this chance to try and end the meeting and announced with a voice that was so well known to those who worked at the police station: "I suggest we send Shisui to keep track of the old man, we will convene next week at the same time, I have urgent business to attend to, meeting adjourned!" And before anyone could utter a word Fugaku stormed out of the room only to be met by a wall of chakra filled with utter panic, yet he could not locate where it came from, but if his bones were correct, he had to go home, immediately.

Fugaku ran faster than he had run in a long time, and by the time he had reached his home he could see that his youngest two children stand in the garden near the pond and that they were safe. He could see that Sasuke was showing his youngest son, Haru, the jutsu Fugaku had showed Sasuke earlier that month, and succeeding. Fugaku could see that this was certainly a big moment for Sasuke, that jutsu was one of the signature jutsu's the Uchiha used in combat, and the proud face he saw after the boy had stopped pumping chakra into his flames confirmed that it really had been a good idea to show Sasuke that jutsu. Perhaps Sasuke would be able to follow in Itachi's footsteps.

However what happened next was a huge surprise to Fugaku, he could actually feel the chakra building up, out of habit he reached for a kunai in his pouch, that was strapped to his left leg to defend his family from the hidden ninja that must have been preparing to attack. But to his surprise he could see his youngest son, little Haru, perform the seals of the 'Goukakyuu no Jutsu' and Fugaku was shocked. There, in his own garden, was his not even a year old son gathering mountains worth of chakra and was about to exhale it! He could not let that happen in a body flicker he appeared behind Haru and Sasuke, and the instant he arrived Haru exhaled and released all that build up chakra in one go, spewing amounts of fire that would dwarf even his own 'Goukakyuu no Jutsu', he grabbed his sons that were reaching out toward each other, in obvious fear. Before the flames backfired Fugaku body flickered out of his garden.

* * *

><p>Hiruzen Sarutobi was seen as a peace loving man, and he was proud of that, villagers had forgotten how many had died by his hands in the third great ninja war, and while it could not soothe his guilty conscious, it did make it easier to hide his shame for the ones he killed that didn't need to be.<p>

However despite hating to kill others, Hiruzen still trained every day in order to be able to defend his home, his ninja's, his comrades and friends and above all that to protect the future generations.

It was thanks to his training that Hiruzen arrived at the house of Uchiha Fugaku to see the man panting heavily while holding a blank scroll that had small scorch marks at the sides.

"What happened here, Uchiha Fugaku?" asked the oldest hokage to have ever served Konoha, while Uchiha Itachi landed just a bit behind him.

"I..." the man puffed out while trying to catch his breath, still somehow capable of looking superior and calm "I... was trying… to per...fect my sealed fire jutsu." The man looked at the hokage as if daring the man not to believe him. "I guess I made a mistake somewhere, the entire seal disappeared... all those weeks of work, for nothing, all gone in one mighty blaze, it seems that it even evaporated all the water in my pond, such a shame."

At that moment, dozens of ninja appeared to come out of thin air, all having been investigating the big explosion. "All at ease." the hokage said while eyeing Fugaku suspiciously. "Return to your normal duties, there is nothing to see here." The old man turned his head towards Itachi and softly said "I want you to debrief me about your mission, in one minute in my office"

"Of course hokage-sama" Itachi nodded with a blank face, showing no emotions.

* * *

><p>"Danzo-sama" the man dressed in black said to a man hidden by the shadows. "The great burst of fire at the Uchiha compound five minutes ago" the root agent started in a tone that betrayed no interest in the conversation whatsoever, "originated from the target." At mentioning this, the root ninja gave Danzo a written report.<p>

"You are dismissed, Fuu" the shadowy figure said while opening the scroll.

"It seems, that Root will soon have his second Uchiha recruit, willing or not." the man said to his almost trustworthy co-conspirators, that were also present in the dust filled chamber. "Have Itachi Uchiha here by nightfall, I believe we have an offer that will greatly interest him."

* * *

><p><strong>Omake<strong>

Harry was sitting alone in his room, he was now three months old and was enjoying the sun beams that entered his room through the window and seemed to play with the specks of dust that were floating in the air.

He had finally grown accustomed to the fact that there were no magical people around this town so you could imagine his shock when out of nowhere a big green envelope dropped out of the air. Harry moved towards the envelope, opened it and pulled out a letter written on parchment with green inked words announcing that Harry James Potter owner of the main Potter vault was twelve months behind on paying his taxes and therefor had given up his rights to any of his galleons that resided in his vault.

If the house was not empty, the laugh that was bellowed out by Harry James Potter, former owner of three and a half million galleons, would have send shivers down their spine.

* * *

><p><strong>AN<strong>: I would like to clarify something that I wrote in an earlier AN of mine; Harry will not be SUPER! Harry, as in he will not be invincible, he will make mistakes and he will get hurt and not be able to magically pull a solution out of his pointy hat whenever there is a problem.  
>However, as witnessed in this chapter, Harry can be quite scary when it comes to his power. I would like to blame J. K. Rowling for this, she totally gave me this idea when she wrote the chapter in which Harry made a patronus so strong, it chased away 100 dementors. When Harry knows he can do something and does not realize the impossibility of the act he can do amazing, terrifying, but amazing things.<p>

Rewritten: 8-2014


	7. Nightmares or Daydreams

**Chapter 6: Nightmares or Daydreams**

Harry and Sasuke were laid on the ground next to Mikoto who, in the last ten seconds, had seen both the most awful and blissful thing in her life. Her boys had not died the painful death she had seen! She engulfed both of them in a hug and took them upstairs to her room so that Fugaku could deal with the "guests" that would have noticed the fire. She only needed one look from him to understand that he would deal with the repercussions.

Holding both of her boys closely to her chest she could feel more than hear Sasuke crying. But Harry had just frozen still, the boy was very pale and looked terrified.

Mikito entering her bedroom placed Sasuke on her bed and sat beside him while holding Harry and asked them if they were alright. Harry was the first one to respond " 'm fine…" in a voice that told Mikoto he was anything but.

She looked at Sasuke and took his head in her hands feeling the tears the boy was crying falling on her hands and softly asked: "Sasuke, are you okay?... Answer me"

"Yeah..."the boy muttered out.

Mikoto could hear Fugaku talking to someone outside and decided to just hold her boys until Fugaku was done and came upstairs as well which took only about three minutes.

The door slid open and there stood Fugaku. "Itachi asked if his brothers were alright. I told him they were not hurt, please tell me they were not hurt." Mikoto heard her husband ask in slight desperation, the severity of the situation finally dawning on him.

"They are fine, thanks to you!" Mikoto said, not able to keep the tears that were forming in her eyes from escaping.

Fugaku took a few seconds to calm himself down again and looked at the boys "Explain to me what happened Sasuke" he asked in a strict voice.

Sasuke nodded and started to tell him about how he was practicing his jutsu and that when he had finally succeeded Harry had screamed and fainted.

"I guess that is also when your brother released that chakra..." Fugaku looked at Harry with calculating eyes, for a second Harry could see the hunger in his fathers' eyes. Hunger for power.

It reminded him of another person who had hungered for power, and whom went to great lengths to get it from him.

* * *

><p>The halls were filled with the melodic sounds of chattering, the sun shined brightly through the large windows, and while only one living person was inside the castle that day, there were plenty of ghosts that haunted the thousand year old school.<p>

The only living person in the castle at the moment was walking on the warm stone floor while reading a book written by an old student of hers. Headmistress McGonagall was about to turn the corner and enter the great hall when she heard wings flapping through the air.

Putting away her book she held out her arm for the bird to land on. The owl, that was now perched on her left arm, held a letter in it's beak. The little bird stared at her with its big eyes, as if asking her to take the letter in its beak.

The letter however, she noticed after a quick glance through her monocles, was not meant for her. It was meant for someone else entirely.

It was meant for Harry James Potter. She could guess the reason why the owl was perching on her arm and not that of Harry's. She was their secret keeper and while under the fidelius charm no owls could find them. She took the letter out of the owls' beak. "Well off you go now." The owl however remained staring at her.

Times had not been easy for Harry and his wife Ginny. They had been the constant focus of the Daily Prophet and that thrice damned Skeeter woman. An entire section was added to the gossip magazine, that called itself a respectable paper, called the 'Chronicles of The boy who lived' a weekly special edition that reported on what the only living magical Potter was doing with his life now that Voldemort had been defeated, which had been seven years ago. And now that Ginny was pregnant with their first child the reporters would follow them day and night, going so far as to actually print when Ginny had her appointments at the gynecologist.

It was why all their owls were directed toward the Hogwarts house elves, they would screen it and if it was a request for an interview or fanmail they would dispose of it, anything else would be redirected to her so she could give it to the Potters in person.

Minerva shook her arm and the owl looked at her in annoyance but flapped it's wings and flew away back to it's owner.

The old headmistress promptly decided to walk to her office and floo travel to Godrics Hollow to deliver the letter and perhaps if she was lucky to be treated to a nice lunch with a good conversation. Yes she would like that very much.

Telling the stone gargoyle her password "Mice" the living statue moved aside in a hurry to let Minerva walk through.

She grabbed a handful of floopowder and announced her destination.

Stepping outside the fireplace that was hardly ever used by the male resident, if the clean floor in front of her was any indication, she was treated to the sight of an irritated looking Harry Potter sitting at the dining table alone staring at the clock.

The man, who still looked so much like the little boy she had known him as, looked up and gave his old transfiguration teacher a small smile and welcomed her "Good morning Minerva, what business brings you here?"

"Good morning to you as well, young man, and since when can't I come by for something as casual as lunch?" she asked in a voice that betrayed her hurt feelings "I'm not only the bringer of your monthly tax fees you know!" she said sternly while Harry looked at her with a quirked eye brow.

"However it is true that I bring you a letter which I just received, but perhaps we could enjoy a nice lunch first. I suggest you, Ginny and I eat at that pancake house that Hermione took me to last summer." the woman said while giving the letter to Harry who took it folded it and put it into his pocket.

"Hmm, that's not such a bad idea, I'm sure Ginny would like to eat something after visiting the doctor for the check-up... Which she should have come back from by now… She probably went to visit Luna without telling me again" He said while grabbing his wand, "Expecto Patronum; Ginny, Minerva and I will be eating at "Old Jans magical Panecake house" please join us or send your own patronus so we know to keep a seat or not" The stag that had come out of Harry's wand was like a beacon of white so pure that it could actually bring tears to those who saw it, Minerva pinked one of her own away.

"Harry, have you been practicing the patronus?" McGonagall asked the raven haired man, at his quizzical look she explained; "it looks as if it is brighter than before, bigger as well".

Minerva could see that Harry's face adopted signs of weariness, "It's nothing Minerva, it's just that my magical reserves have been growing exponentially ever since I lost the horcrux, at least that is what Hermione thinks, you should see my stunner it looks more like a red beam of death than a soft red tinted stun spell." Harry said giving only half the truth. But the headmistress seemed to take it at face value.

Yes, his magic had been growing at humongous speed ever since the horcrux in him had been destroyed by Voldemort, but the reason why it showed so much potency in the spells that were casted was because of the elder wand, the strongest wand ever to be held by men.

"Take my arm" Harry said while holding his arm out for McGonagall to grab "I'll apparate us to the restaurant" and Minerva felt like she was being dragged through a thin rubber tube that was just wide enough for her to slip through, it was there that she saw that Harry was not lying when he said his magic had grown. She could see the enormous space around Harry which indicated that his magical aura alone was stabilizing his travel, in truth it shocked her, not even Albus had shown such a big aura.

Arriving at the pancake house Minerva, with Harry in tow, was quickly walking to their assigned seats. They ordered their drinks and started to talk about nonsensical things.

"I wonder why Ginny is taking so long?" Harry said after ten minutes and one drink had passed without hearing or seeing any sign of Ginny. "I'm sure she's received my message. There is nothing that could possibly block a patronus." Harry said with a hint of worry in his voice.

"I will ask one of the Hogwarts house elves; 'Binty'" with a soft pop a tiny little creature appeared and Minerva asked "Could you go to Ginny Potter and- " the sudden cries of the house elf startled both the headmistress and Harry.

"Is anything wrong, Binty?" Harry asked with a soothing voice trying to calm the little house elf.

"All the elves is heard it from the post elves master Harry Potter sir!" the creature said while huge tears were strolling down it's face.

"Heard what?" asked McGonagall inquisitively.

"The letter with the ransom" Binty cried even harder after that statement. "The letter in master Harry Potter sirs pocket".

While the elf kept sobbing Harry quickly pulled out the letter he had stashed away previously without a care. He teared open the envelope and took the letter and read out loud; "I know of your most prized possession give it to me and I will make sure you wife and child will not come to harm."After saying this Minerva could see the panic rising in Harry's emerald green eyes, the panic however made way for steeled will after he blinked once.

"It's a portkey" Harry said to his old transfiguration professor, "I will be back with Ginny after dealing with this... portus." As Harry said that last word he vanished in front of Minerva's eyes and she could only stare at where he had once seated and pulled out her book she had stashed away earlier. She was confident in Harry's ability to take care of this. He had been the defeater of Voldemort after all, and a damn good auror as well. Harry had never before failed in protecting his loved one before and he would not now... she thought to herself totally forgetting about Sirius.

* * *

><p>Harry landed on his feet after being transported by the portkey. He looked around but saw nothing but darkness, and heard nothing other than the sound of heavy breathing. "Harry! It's Malfoy, it's Lucius Malfoy, Harry!" Ginny yelled at Harry while lights were slowly fading into existence, "He wants the elder wand but don't give it t-" Ginny cried out.<p>

"Silence you filthy mudblood loving whore." the man standing beside Ginny said waving his wand silencing the woman. Harry looked at the ordeal and the only thing from keeping from hexing the Malfoy into a coma was the fact that he still had his wand pointed at his wife. "Hello, Mr. Potter, it's been too long, do you not agree? It is good to see you keep your promise of always saving the day though." Lucius spoke with his silver tongue and a smug look on his face.

"Not long enough, Lucius." Harry responded with his wand held tightly in his hands ready to for battle. "And I'll confess myself hurt by your betrayal; was it not I that kept your child out of Azkaban?"

Lucius looked wide-eyed at him. "That ungrateful little." Lucius shook his head, looking somewhat unhinged. "You misunderstand something Potter, I no longer hold anything precious to me. The only thing that matters in this world is power." The blondes' wand was now aimed at Ginny's head; the hold Malfoy had on it so strong it was shaking.

"I'll give you the wand, but you have to vow to me to let her go, unharmed." Ginny shook her head, desperately.

"HAH, you take me for a fool?" the old deatheater screamed. "The Deathstick can only be truly mastered if you have defeated its previous owner!" Lucius said reclaiming his calm and superior attitude he was so well known for.

"No Mr. Potter we shall duel till the death right here, right now, however you will be at an disadvantage. You see I know I could never beat you in a fair fight, the Deathstick would never be defeated that easily. So I made some preparations to make our duel a bit more interesting." Lucius said while pointing his left hand to the chain on the ground next to Harry.

"All you have to do to get your wife back is defeat me while being chained, and don't bother to try and get rid of it once it is on, it's goblin made Mr. Potter... you can only open it with the key, which I have right here." Lucius said while petting his pocket.

"Ginny,don't worry I'll get you out of here in seconds just need to take care of some second rate death eater leftovers" Harry said while closing the chains around his ankle.

"First," said Lucius with a smirk "we bow!" Lucius sneered at Harry while bowing slightly.

"Wrong!" said Harry while a bright red light shot out of his wand which was easily evaded by the older man. "First we take aim"

"Now now Mr. Potter such anger is unbecoming even if you are just a halfblood. Have some decorum now. "IMPERIO. Bow" Lucius said while once again bowing slightly keeping his wand trained on Harry who was fighting the imperius curse with all his might while at the same time cursing those chains that had kept him from dodging.

Lucius stood straight up and entered his duel stance, pointing his wand at Harry's head and said; "Now we can duel as proper wizards Mr. Potter" and the platinum blond started to weave his wand in patterns that betrayed the spell which he was about to cast.

Harry who had finally thrown off the effects of the Imperius curse looked at Malfoy and recognized the patterns that were necessary to summon Fiendfyre. Harry quickly started to move his own wand as he conjured a giant wall of water around the older man. Using the Elder wand he animated the water so that it would become the shape of an orb with in the middle Malfoy who had stopped trying to cast fiendfyre and was now desperately gasping for air. Ultimately the man aimed his wand at Harry and a sickly green light slowly moved through the water towards Harry. Harry Conjured a thick metal slab to defend himself and thus lost focus on his previous animating spell and the sphere of water fell apart.

"You can not beat me Potter!" Lucius yelled at the young man in front of him eyes looking crazed he explained just exactly why: "I have luck on my side today!"

Harry gritted his teeth, "Malfoy must have drunk Felix Felicis" he thought to himself. However he must have brewed it wrong he does not have the slight gazed look in his eyes that is typical of one who has used the potion properly.

"Do you?" Harry asked the calmness in his voice not betraying the feeling of urgency he had. "Prove it to me!" Harry said while he tried to summon Malfoy silently, making the man fall forward. "Seems to me like Lady Luck does not favor you as much as you think. Are you sure you got the brewing right? Or did you just take so much it that instead of luck" Harry paused for half a second "you poisoned yourself with overconfidence?"

The eyes of the blond man widened at this. He had been rather confident today but also very lucky. No he had done nothing wrong he knew he was going to take the Deathstick today. He was going to win he had planned this out perfectly. First he was going to break the boys spirit, he would collapse in utter guilt and be useless and then HE Lucius Malfoy would be the owner of the Deathstick. He would then purify the entire wizarding world by slaughtering each and every witch and wizard that was not of pure blood starting with the mudblood friends of the-boy-who-died-by-his-hands.

Malfoy laughed at Harry's statement; "You think I would be that foolish?" He looked at Ginny and before Harry could do anything to stop the man, Lucius Malfoy, the man Harry fought in the atrium. That killed and tortured so many innocents and in Harry's eyes should have been locked up in Azkaban for his crimes killed his wife with the sickly green light of the avada kedavra.

Harry saw the wide eyed dead face of his wife and something snapped in Harry. He could feel his magic building up and he could feel his emotions becoming too much. Anger. Grief. Rage. Sadness.

"There is no more reason to fight now is there potter? "Lucius said "Don't worry I will send you to her. You can be with her forever just stand still for one moment. Avad-" Malfoy choked on his words as magic seemed to suffocate him.

Harry could feel all the magic in him trying to get out but he held it in. Harry swallowed once and the magic took over and with a booming voice that was not carried by sound waves but by the magic Harry was emitting all over the United Kingdom only being stopped by the magic draining sea. Everyone within Harry's influence could hear and feel Harry's judgment in a voice that sounded almost demonic "**Lucius Malfoy you will for killing my wife be sentenced to eternal death of soul and body, AVADA KEDAVRA**" a huge green light shot out of Harry's wand and it not only killed but completely obliterated the murderer of his wife, of his unborn baby, seemingly eroding the body until nothing was left but a broken skeletel frame.

After seeing Malfoy disintegrate Harry fell to his knees and using the Elder wand vanished the chains around his ankle. Crept towards the dead body of his wife and cried. And screamed.

Behind Harry a figure appeared, cloaked in black; a coldness coming with it. "You summoned me, my master?"

Harry turned around, the unexpected visitor had the elder wand directed at his face the moment Harry did that. Not that Harry could see said face; his glasses were dirtied by his tears. "Who are you?" Harry growled out, his voice hoarse.

"I am Death, my master." The cloaked figure stated without emotion. "You summoned me here?"

Rewritten 8-2014


	8. The best course of action

**Chapter 7: The best course of action**

Kakashi was ordered by the Hokage to go back to his previous duties, however Kakashi had gathered information that would prove to be most valuable to the Hokage. So instead of going back to reading his book, he decided to hop by the old man and give his report.

Standing in the office, that belonged to the Hokage, Kakashi waited for a short while, opting to read the Icha Icha Paradise novel he had in his pocket instead of simply waiting, Kakashi decided to lean against the wall and pulled out his book.

It was at this site that the old Hokage walked into his office. "Hatake Kakashi, why are you here?" the old man said. "You're off duty after that month long mission to Suna; I will not send you on another one this quickly."

"Hokage-sama, I am here to report what I have seen at the Uchiha District before everyone else arrived, I got there almost immediately" Kakashi spoke in a serious tone that did not quite fit the way he was leaning lazily against the wall.

"Go on, Kakashi, I am most curious as to what you saw." Sarutobi spoke with a hint of tiredness apparent in his voice.

"When I arrived I could see that Uchiha Fugaku dropped of his two children at his wife Uchiha Mikoto" the hokage heard Kakashi say. "I could clearly see him take out a new scroll and hold it close to a fire, after his children were brought upstairs, to scorch the sides."

The hokage nodded gravely after hearing this "Are you aware of what this statement means, Hatake Kakashi?"

"I believe, it means that whatever happened in that garden was most definitely not a fire-sealing gone wrong" Kakashi said in an ominous voice.

The two men stood still after that conclusion was uttered. A knock was heard on the door and the hokage said "Come in"

* * *

><p>Uchiha Itachi arrived at the scene just shortly after the hokage did and stood silently behind their village's leader, hoping to hear what had happened at his home. Hearing the tale his father spun, Itachi couldn't help but feel a great sense of doom coming over him.<p>

His father never worked with seals, he considered it a tool not befitting of a ninja. So Itachi knew, immediately that his father was lying to the Hokage, the only thing Itachi did not know was what had actually happened, his father did not have the chakra to make such a huge fire ball. It did not make sense to Itachi... the list of people whom had enough skill in the art of fire-jutsu or the chakra to unleash such fury was small... and most of the list wasn't in Konoha right now.

Itachi was relieved when he was allowed to stay for a minute after the Hokage left; he had to know what had really happened here.

Uchiha Itachi followed his father inside and waited for the man to start explaining what really had taken place in his garden.

"It was Haru." Fugaku said while throwing the scroll he had used as an excuse away in the bin; "Sasuke showed Haru the Goukakyuu no Jutsu, and Haru copied it with his sharingan." Fugaku's eyes slowly drifted to the stairs that led to his and Mikoto's bedroom.

"Are they alright father?" Itachi asked with worry edged on his face.

"They are fine, just scared" at hearing this Itachi let out a sigh of relief. He loved his brothers more than anything. "No one must know of this Itachi, I already have the elders breathing down my neck because of his potential." His father didn't have to say which brother he was talking about.  
>If they even suspect he is capable of feats like this, not even I cannot protect him from their influence anymore."<p>

Itachi nodded at hearing his father's almost pleading voice "I will keep the interest of Haru and Sasuke at the highest regard father"

Fugaku sighed out of relief and tried to see how far Itachi would go to protect his family. "Will you keep quiet about this to even Shisui, even to the hokage?" at hearing his father ask this Itachi's face turned serious, deadly even.

"To protect my brothers I would go to hell and back, not even the devil would be able to stop me!" Itachi said and Fugaku looked pleased at his son and gave him a small pet on the shoulder.

"That is good to hear Itachi, Family is more important than anything, more important than the individual, more important than even the village. Don't ever forget that, Itachi." Fugaku said sagely.

"Of course father" Itachi nodded "I am needed at the hokage's office to debrief my previous mission, I will be home tonight after I am done with that." And with having said that Itachi shunshined away to the Hokage's office.

* * *

><p>Kaskashi, during his conversation with the hokage had carefully put away his new icha icha paradise book and was now looking at the door with his hands in his pockets. The door creaked open and he could see that Uchiha Itachi, Obito's nephew, was standing in the doorway "Kakashi, thanks for debriefing me, it was most insightful perhaps you could enjoy the rest of your free time somewhere other than this old dusty office." He heard the Hokage ask from behind him.<p>

"Of course Hokage-sama." Kakashi answered, slowly turning his head back towards the Hokage, nodded and jumped out of the window.

"Itachi, continue your report from earlier." The Hokage said.

"As I said before, I came out of it the short battle unscathed, I was attacked by Ao, the Ame-ninja with the byakugan." At hearing this the hokage's eyes widened a bit, Itachi's skill in hiding himself was nothing to scoff at, the fact that he had been found out, it was dangerous; because this wasn't Itachi's first mission going to Ame to get updates.

"After that, he told me he attacked me because he was ordered to test me, and that because I had passed the test, I was allowed to go on; to see the Mizukage" Itachi took a step forward and started to talk slower and softer, "Once I was in the Mizukage's office, I immediately felt watched, and then two voices started to talk to me but only one of the shadows that I could see walked forward, it was a masked man," Itachi said his voice becoming even harder to hear as it kept getting softer "the only part of his face I could see was his right eye, his eyes were cursed hokage-sama" Itachi, the normally passive monotone boy had shiver in his voice "He only showed it for a flash but I could see it clearly, he held the final cursed state of the sharingan, he had the Mangekyou Sharingan." The last two words spoken hardly more than a whisper.

Itachi fell silent after saying that, and the hokage waited until he continued "He informed me that... that…"Itachi stuttered. "He informed me that the Uchiha are planning a coup that will take place in a year or two!" the young boy said, knowing that this would change everything he knew, he had, just now, utterly betrayed his family.

"I can't let them do that sir!" Itachi said steeling his resolution. "I love this village too much for it to be going through a civil war that will only cause death and misery" Itachi went on his knees "Please, hokage-sama help me save my family and my village, I can't lose either!"

* * *

><p>Hiruzen Sarutobi, God of Ninja, was not a man easily surprised, but what the boy in front of him had said just now, it shook him till his very foundation. Now Hiruzen was no fool, yes he liked to believe the spirit of fire burned in everyone as brightly as it did in him but he knew that it did not.<p>

He wanted to tell the young boy that everything would be okay and that he as Hokage could take care of little problems like this.

'God of Shinobi' Sarutobi thought to himself bitterly.

"I can't promise you it will be easy, but I will try my best to make sure that the coup will not happen, I will protect the village with everything I have, Itachi, I can promise you that." the Third said.

"I do not want you to disclose this information to anyone else Itachi, this will be treated as an S-Class secret from now on." Sarutobi declared "You are dismissed, go home and try to enjoy spending time with your family." Itachi turned around on the spot and practically ran out of the office.

The third walked towards the window and leaned out of it, watching the faces of his former teachers. "Hashirama, Tobirama what would your advice be if you were here?" the Hokage asked.

* * *

><p>Harry was really not having his day, first he found out he could not use a wooden stick as a conduit for his magic, then he almost had a heart attack after seeing Sasuke conjuring fire by breathing, then he had almost burned down half the village. Yes, this could officially be called the worst day ever, and to think it was only four o'clock in the afternoon.<p>

Harry had been asked by Fugaku what he had done, to explain the huge fire, but he had remained silent, playing the part of a shocked child. He knew acting cute would not save him from the questions that Fugaku would ask; the questions that Harry did not liked to be asked.

Perhaps it had not been such a great idea to try out this jutsu-thing. But it was not really his fault now was it, how could he have known that gathering just a little bit of chakra, as he kept reminding himself to call it, would have such dramatic effects.

He should have known nothing was ever normal for Harry Potter, the freaking boy- that- could- not- be- normal- even- after- dying!  
>Harry wanted to punch something but he was not sure if his nine month old knuckles could handle that. So he settled for the next best thing, kicking his pillow.<p>

After kicking his pillow until he was sure he had no more energy left in his tiny body, Harry decided it was time to think. Fugaku and Mikoto told Harry, after sending Sasuke to his room, that in a few weeks he was going to be trained like any good Uchiha. He would receive training before he went to the academy. To Harry it sounded all a bit weird, here he was, a nine month old infant and he was going to be trained. They had reasoned that they couldn't have him do jutsu while not under supervision...His mother had told him they would work on chakra control everyday; and when he was old enough they would start physical conditioning.

Old enough? Harry had tried his best to act a child, but he wasn't very good at it. As much as he wanted to, each and everytime he was supposed to hold back or underperform he didn't. It made him question himself, did he want his parents acknowledgement so badly? Did he crave their support because he hadn't had that in his previous life?

Deciding he couldn't find the answers by simply questioning himself Harry laid his head on his pillow and started to breath slower. If his conscious mind couldn't find the answer, perhaps he could dig deeper.

Harry almost reached the state of calmness he needed to enter his paramount consciousness, he had negelected going that far back into his psyche since his rebirth; but perhaps the answers were there, however the door to his room slid open, revealing his oldest brother. Harry tried to smile at Itachi, but he was too tired. Instead he whispered "'M sorry, 'Tachi."

Itachi walked over to Harry, picked the boy up and sat down with him in the corner of Harry's room."Harry, I don't know if you remember this, but I once told you that you would have a hard life." Harry nodded at this and Itachi looked slightly shocked." It seems like I was not wrong, was I?"

Harry felt like he was being torn apart, on the one hand he wanted to tell this young kid that was his brother to just go away and leave him alone, but he knew that would do more damage than that it would do good. Harry had learned that the hard way in his previous life. On the other hand he wanted to just hug this boy that always seemed to know the right things to say.

"You were right." Harry said solemn. Harry looked down at his hands; they were squeezing Itachi's fingers quite hard.

Harry could not see his brother's face but he could feel the tiny drops of fluid that were falling on his head. Harry noticed that the floor boards were creaking, and he knew someone was coming. Was it their parents? Only a few seconds later Sasuke walked in the room.

He saw his brothers and Harry could see that he wanted to join them, to feel close to each other. "Come join us" Itachi said. Sasuke did not need to be told that twice as he rushed over to his brothers and sat down with his back leaning on Itachi who had his arm around both his younger brothers now.

"I should not have taught you the Goukakyuu no Jutsu, Harry" Sasuke said after a few moments of silence and Harry could hear that the boy really meant it; "I'm sorry!" he let out finally.

"It's ok. I'm sorry too." Harry drawled out, his words sluggishly forming as tiredness was claiming him.

"We are brothers, we take care of each other, and as the oldest I promise to keep you both safe, no matter what, do you both understand that, I will protect you and make sure you will never be harmed again." Itachi said with a hidden meaning, but both Sasuke and Harry accepted his words without truly understanding the lengths Itachi already went for them.

"Thank you, big brothers, I..." Harry took a deep breath, he had not said this to anyone in a very long time, gathered his Gryffindor courage and finished "-love you more than anything else in this world."

The three boys were silent after this, and the youngest two fell asleep not long after that, Itachi carried them to bed and decided that after such a long and strenuous day, he deserved some sleep as well.

* * *

><p>Mikoto and Fugaku were sitting in the burned down garden, not much had survived the fire that was made by their nine month old son. "Am I being wise, Mikoto?" Fugaku asked Mikoto, but she stayed silent. "Should I push my children this hard? Is it alright that we train him? He is still so young, so fragile, but so strong at the same time, Mikoto, what would be wise?"<p>

Mikoto took her husband's hand in hers and said the only thing she could think of, the thing that she had been taught as a young girl and had believed in and would keep on believing in until she died; "If it is in the best interest of the clan, it is a wise decision." But the words came out hollow.

"I am not so sure it is anymore, dear Mikoto, I have such doubts." And Fugaku stood up leaving his wife alone with her evaporated pond and not so secret stash of sake.

* * *

><p><strong>AN<strong>: And so ends the hottest day in konoha arc. So does anyone recognize the movie I referenced to when I wrote the last scene with Fugaku and Mikoto? It is one of my favorite drama's.

Next chapter will have a bit of a time skip but I'm not sure when it will be posted, I have a few busy days ahead.

-rewritten 8-2014


	9. Arrogance rots away the branch

**AN**: Aww, no one guessed the movie I referenced to last chapter, it was Meryl Streep's heavy drama "Doubt".

This chapter feature's a lot of p.o.v. changes and it will go from one point in time to another. so bear with me please.

As always a big thank you to the reviewers that took the time out of their day to write a review, really they are much appreciated.  
>This is the un-beta'd version, A big thank you to our lovely miracle worker Xhexia.<p>

**I ask of you please read the AN's at the end of this chapter.**

* * *

><p><strong>T minus zero point 5<strong>

On first glance Konoha was a very peaceful village. Villagers talked happily with each other and the ninja were rather pleasant to talk to as well; if they were not on a mission.

However it was a fact that much went on behind closed doors, Konoha was like a sleeping volcano at this moment, sensitive shinobi could feel it in the air, and there was a certain tension that could not be missed if one knew what to look for.

Uzumaki Naruto however noticed none of that; he was running as fast as he could play ninja, on his own. Naruto had always liked playing ninja, it felt like the only time he was free, free from the glances he received from the villagers and even some of the ninja.

Now Naruto may have been a fool, but he wasn't dumb, he knew he was hated, he did not know why, but he still knew he was, and it hurt.

Yet, Naruto was having fun at the moment, feeling free and running carelessly while imagining being a ninja, a respected person that was looked up on by everyone in the village.

However Naruto was perhaps a bit too carefree because after only a few minutes he ran into someone and he could hear that someone falling on the ground.

"Argh, that hurts, watch out where you are going!" a voice called out to him, Naruto looked down and could see a small kid lying on the ground in front of him.

"Sorry, are you alright?" Naruto asked the smaller child that could not have been older than three years. Naruto stretched out his arm as to help the boy up but the boy pushed himself up and looked directly into Naruto's eyes. Naruto could feel something, he was not sure what but it was as if the boy was seeing more than just Naruto, as if the boy could like inside of him and pass judgment on him then and there, but for some reason it did not freak Naruto out, the boy was too kind looking to be mean or anything.

"It is okay Naruto." The boy said after a few seconds, "you were just enjoying yourself too much to care where you were going." Naruto looked at them, how could that boy know his name? And why did he sound like Hokage-jiji?

"How do you know my name?" Naruto said inquisitively. "I do not know you, and I am sure I have never seen you before so you could not have seen me either!"

"You are silly, your name is written all over you, can you not see it?" the boy asked channeling his inner Luna.

"Uhmm..." Naruto managed to bring out "what is your name?" he asked the boy hoping to satisfy his growing curiosity.

The green eyes that belonged to the boy did not hold the same malice as most of the other eyes in the village did towards Naruto, he wondered if the boy liked to play ninja as well.

"My name is Haru, My friends call me Harry, so I guess you could call me Harry." the raven black haired boy said. "Would you mind if I play along with you, Naruto? I don't get too play ninja all that often."

"Of course; so who will be the bad guy? I am probably too fast for you but if you want I could be the good guy chasing you?" Naruto said hoping that the boy wouldn't be offended; he never before had a friend.

"I am faster than I look Naruto, Ninja rule number one, do not underestimate your enemy." And with having said that the boy dashed away, leaving an open-mouthed Naruto behind. "Well are you coming or what?"

"Yeah, I will catch you in no time, believe it!" Naruto let out laughing, chasing after his first friend.

The two boys played for a ninja for a while until; "What are you doing with the dobe, Harry?" Sasuke asked in a demanding tone.

"Sasuke! Come join us, we're playing ninja, it is so much fun but Naruto can't catch me he needs help!" Harry said. At hearing this Naruto pouted. But the look on Sasuke's face was perhaps even more comical to Harry, his brother looked like he trying to hold in his laugh while doing his very best impression of Itachi's bored face.

"Harry," Sasuke said after regaining his composure "you should go home, it is time for dinner. Mom and dad are waiting for us and even Itachi is home tonight."

Naruto looked shocked at this, Harry, his first friend ever, was the little brother of that Sasuke-teme? But they were nothing alike, how could that be?

"I am sorry Naruto, I have to go home, I will see you around and we will play ninja again." Harry said politely.

"Uhmm, okay that is fine I guess, bye!" Naruto said, not able to keep the shocked look off his face.

* * *

><p><strong>T minus zero point 1<strong>

It was already dark and the moon was shining brightly in the cloudless sky, it was a perfect silent evening except for two boys talking to each other.

"He is such a sad person; you should be nicer to him Sasuke!" Harry told his older brother. "Why do you dislike him so much anyway?"

"Harry, you don't understand, he is a fool, a joke. He wants to be a ninja but he can't even throw a kunai properly, it is pathetic and I don't associate with people like him, he is useless to me." Sasuke ranted, "Who do I need beside you and Itachi anyways; you are both so much better than them."

The boys were almost home and they could actually see the walls of the Uchiha district by now;" I think you're just being mean, I am faster and stronger than you are, and so is Itachi but we still talk with you, we still play with you and treat you as an equal" Harry told his silly older brother, while Sasuke was gritting his teeth. "You should treat everyone as equal Sasuke, or people will resent you."

That was actually a sore point for Sasuke, his older brother was already an Anbu and was so talented Sasuke thought he would never catch up to him, but he had been getting stronger, and he was sure that when he made genin he was going to become an Anbu really fast as well. All he needed to do was awaken his sharingan.

But was possibly more painful for his pride to handle was the fact that his younger brother by five years had surpassed him, Harry was already in the last year of the academy and did not even seem to find it all that interesting what he learned as if he already knew everything he was being taught, his mother and father were so proud of him, they were so proud of both his brothers and they said they were proud of Sasuke as well, but he knew they were not as proud of him as they were of Itachi and Harry.

However, Sasuke knew he was talented, he was best in his class, he was popular and no one could deny his intelligence and determination. Yet when it came to his family no one really saw Sasuke, all they saw was Itachi's or Harry's brother.

Sasuke would not say it out loud but he envied his brothers, they got to advance so fast, they were almost treated like adults and he, Sasuke, wanted that as well.

"Sasuke, are you listening?" he heard his little brother practically yell.

"Hmm, yeah sure" Sasuke muttered out. "Sorry, what did you say again?"

"Argh, never mind, we are home, I wonder what we will be eating tonight." Harry said, sounding agitated.

* * *

><p><strong>T minus five<strong>

Itachi had been summoned to the hokage's office. However instead of finding the hokage there he had been welcomed into the office by Kohora, one of the two personal advisors of the hokage.

"Uchiha Itachi, Will you accept a mission in which you will guard me for one week, my normal guard has fallen ill and you are the most qualified person to replace him." Koharu asked of the teenager in front of her.

"Please explain the specifics of this mission, Koharu-sama" Itachi asked politely, knowing that something was askew here.

"It will be an A-classed mission, for one week, you will escort me to meetings and will perform my every command during that week, you will get the day portion of the schedule, the night guard is still in good health and does not need replacement." Koharu summarized.

Itachi knew it was a huge honor to be asked to guard such a high placed person; "Of course Koharu-sama, when should I begin?"

* * *

><p><strong>T minus three<strong>

In a room, far beneath the ground three shadowy figures were doing what they did best, plotting. They were not plotting evil plots as those you would have expected from three shadowy and secretive persons. No they were plotting for the betterment of their village, they were the roots that supported the tree, they were the cleaners that made sure that Konoha remained clean of filth, they were the reason the village was as strong as it was.

The will of fire burned deeply within them but it were cold flames, not flames of passion and kindness but of calculation and power.

All three of them had worked hard to gain positions of power, of status. All three of them knew what it meant to sacrifice not for their own personal gain, no they sacrificed for the betterment of the village and at the moment there was one person that needed to be sacrificed to make sure that the village would be able to overcome the sick branch it was trying to support.

All the pieces on their chessboard were set and all they had to do was wait for the first move; which was now taking place if Koharu plan was set in motion.

"Koharu, is the boy standing outside?" Danzo asked of the elderly looking woman.

"He stands beside the tree. The other boy is in place as well" she said in nothing more than a whisper.

Danzo looked pleased at this "than today will mark the day that one of the dying branches will start to get cut off." And as Danzo said this he flickered away as he was suddenly standing behind an intruder.

"How nice of you to join us in this for lack of better word funeral Uchiha Shisui." The man said in a calm voice against the teenager that felt like he was frozen in place.

"You cannot move right now. You see, when you came in here and so cleverly dispelled all those genjutsu's you activated the last seal, the eight point ration stasis." Danzo said while stretching out his hand towards Shisui's face, whose eyes widened in fear. "I will claim that eye of yours; it seems I will finally get my second eye back, only with an upgrade. I want you to know that the village of Konoha appreciates the sacrifice you are making by giving it to me so willingly. It will help protect Konoha, don't worry about that." Danzo offered as solace to the boy while he plucked out shisui's left eye.

"I am however disappointed in you, Shisui, why have you for the last two years been following me so obviously. I thought you were better than that?" Danzo asked of the boy whose muscles were not allowing him to talk.

"Koharu, ask if Itachi could join us for a minute, I believe it would only be fair to let a traitor of Konoha be killed by a traitor of his family, would it not?" Danzo asked, taking some sort of pleasure out of the whole ordeal.

"Danzo, don't play games, we should finish this before he escapes, the seal will not hold him for much longer" Homaru told the one eyed man with a hint of annoyance apparent in his voice.

"Worry not, Homaru. Even if he escapes, he could never outrun the other Uchiha boy, the boy is a genius I am not sure any of us could survive an encounter with him." Danzo stated.

Koharu and Itachi slowly walked through the entrance of the cave and while Itachi's face betrayed no feelings his eyes seemed to cry tearlessly.

"Itachi, this ninja, for conspiring against the village of Konoha needs to be put to death. That shall be your responsibility, dispose of the body in the way we previously discussed, understood?" Koharu asked of the boy.

Itachi nodded in response, closing his eyes, breathed once and opened them again with his sharingan fully ablaze.

"I am sorry it has come to this, Shisui, my best friend." Itachi's sharingan started to spin wildly but before he could cast his genjutsu Shisui had flickered out of sight.

"Follow him, and make sure he is dead before he can pass over his information!" Koharu demanded of the sharingan user. And with a small nod Itachi shun shined away himself.

* * *

><p><strong>T minus four point five<strong>

After a chase of two minutes Itachi had caught up to Shisui, but Shisui did not seem startled by this.

"Itachi, there are things going on-" Shisui spoke but was interrupted by Itachi.

"I know about the coup, but I can't in good conscious allow it to happen, the arrogance of our clan has reached heights that cannot be allowed in a village such as Konoha." Itachi said sadly but with conviction. "At the end of this week, I and an ally of the elders shall smother the fire that is being made by the Uchiha clan in their endless desire to gain power."

"I knew that already Itachi, I am your best friend I can read you like an open book." Shisui said while looking directly at Itachi. "Before I die I want to give you two gifts Itachi, please accept them."

Itachi looked at his best friend, the boy he had seen as a big brother of sorts. "I will listen to your dying wish, I owe you that much." Itachi said with eyes that were too kind for a ninja.

"First I want to impart on you my dream; I want this world to know peace, I want this world to know kindness. I have failed in accomplishing my dream, I allowed myself to be too tightly controlled by our elder's council to be able to clearly see the will of fire that burns so brightly in my heart. Itachi I ask of you to take my dream and make it reality, if you agree I can give you the second gift." Shisui asked of the boy that was about to kill him.

"You know, Shisui that it is my dream as well to bring peace to this wicked world." Itachi said tears finally starting to come out of his eyes.

"Then I can give to you, my most prized possession, I can give you the ultimate suggestion technique, Itachi, use this to achieve our shared dream!" After saying that, Shisui plucked out his own right eye making himself blind.

Itachi silently accepted the eye of Shisui and summoned one of his crows and with precision that did not betray the maelstrom of feelings Itachi was feeling he implanted shisui's sharingan with the eye- transferal technique.

"I am sorry Shisui; do you have any last words before you leave this impure world?" Itachi asked of his best friend.

"Good luck, Itachi" and with having said that Itachi knocked the boy out cold and slowly suffocated the boy under water. And while the will of fire that once burned so brightly in Shisui died out. Itachi cried tears of blood.

* * *

><p><strong>T minus two<strong>

Harry was eating his lunch at home, just that morning he had been at the academy, and he had been so bored. Mizuki, the teacher of his class gave him the creeps so Harry had decided to just read the books, which apparently went really fast if you used the sharingan, it was almost like he used a photo camera. Harry was sure that if Hermione could see him now she would certainly be jealous!

It was at that moment that Harry truly missed his Deathly Hallows, without the resurrection stone he was not able to call anyone back, not even just to see them.

Harry had been trying to use his magic for the past week, he had noticed that his magic felt lighter, he was sure that it was all gone now, all that magic he once had held within him was now chakra, but unlike the vast ocean of soothing magic he at one time draw from he now had a raging fire that seemed to be as endless as that ocean but where his magic used to feel cold and old, this chakra he now possessed was young and full of life.

Harry had been experimenting and while most things were impossible, he could not conjure a puppy or a desk he was capable of everything that had to do with wand less magic.  
>This meant that he could apparate, but it felt different, while apparating with magic was like being squeezed through a rubber tube, apparating while using chakra felt more like being sucked through a vacuum cleaner. The first time Harry had dared to apparate was when he was walking a tree in the forest during school time and had lost control of his chakra and suddenly fell towards the ground, and he was surprised how easy it was, he had not showed it to anyone yet because he had read that teleportation was a very coveted skill that people would kill and dissect you for, and while Harry knew that that was just the way this world worked he was not sure if he wanted to die such a gruesome death.<p>

And while finding out he could still apparate had been exciting he was happier that he could still occlude his mind and use legilemency, those skills had been so useful in his previous life that he had wondered how he had managed to not utilize it after being reborn, he blamed it on his brains not being fully developed yet and that his mind had unconsciously been protecting him from harm by letting his brain make the neurological pathways that were required for the mind arts, before using them.

Yes, Harry had learned a lot about this world of ninja since he had been reborn into it.

He had learned about chakra and was learning how to control it, which was quite difficult even with his sharingan.

He had learned how chakra worked, it was quite a wondrous thing to Harry, Where magic had been present in levels that had nothing to do with your physicality or mental control it had more to do with the need of magic, it was why people like Voldemort and Dumbledore had had such vast amounts of magic at their command and why Harry had been gaining so much magic after getting rid of the horcrux in him because the elder wand had demanded it of him, or so was the theory he, Ron and Hermione had thought up.

No Chakra was a truly special source of energy, it was gained through several aspects, you could gain chakra by training your body, making it stronger relatively, he had sensed the hokage and he could feel that the man despite his old age still had large amounts of chakra at his command, the man stood out in this village like a lighthouse stood out in the dark, it spoke volumes of his chakra. However Harry was sure that most of the chakra that the old man had was because of his spiritual or as Harry liked to call it mental energy.

Harry was almost certain that his theory of how chakra was gained was pretty solid. You see when one's mental energy was highly trained like Harry's was you could have a large amount of chakra however, that amount of chakra would grow exponentially when it was combined with chakra gained through physical prowess, it was like the chakra was thicker and purer than either parts of the sum were.

Harry wondered why the ninja's had not taught this to the academy students, it was not that hard to figure out, after all even he could sense clearly that the man in the green spandex suit was someone who had held a lot of physical energy but hardly any mental energy and thus his chakra was heavy but brittle, and he could also easily sense that the father of that Shikamaru kid had loads of mental chakra that was very light but also extremely dense.

And he could feel that his own chakra was both of that, so the theory that when one was in perfect balance, ones chakra would be most potent and exponentially bigger than when one was just focused on one aspect. In this case it was clear to Harry that the sum was most likely twenty times more potent than either part was. And when in perfect balance probably five times that, but he could not prove that yet, as no one seemed to poses a perfectly balanced chakra reserve, at least not in Konoha.

But now Harry was eating lunch and did not have time to think about complicated things like chakra theories. No he was very focused on his Okonomiyaki which tasted almost like Italian pizza!

After finishing his meal Harry knew that it was almost time to go back to the academy and so put away the dirty dishes and walked to the front door when he could hear several voice arguing some of the voices sounded accusing and he could also hear Itachi's voice, so Harry started to investigate.

He saw Sasuke standing around the corner; eyes opened wide in horror so Harry walked over to him and placed his hand on Sasuke's back trying to ease the boy. And he could now hear Itachi's words clearly;" There is no hope for this clan; all we do is strive for power forgetting the reason we want power. The clan is too proud of its lineage and blood and thinks it is above the law, but the clan needs to know that there is always an opposing force, a ying that equals the yang" Itachi preached to them.

"You lie before me because in your arrogance and ignorance you thought I was a patient man, I will not be accused of the vilest act known to the Uchiha!" Itachi said while a Kunai was rushing in on him, Harry who saw this ran forward to stop the kunai and when Harry grabbed the kunai and saw who had thrown it, he felt betrayed to his very bones.

"Father, why are you attacking Itachi?" Harry asked of the man standing in front of him.

"Harry, please leave this alone, go to school, you too Sasuke this was nothing more than the ramblings of three idiots, that needed to be taught a lesson." Itachi stated calmly, "I believe father has made his point, I went out of line, nothing to worry about Harry, Sasuke."

Harry wanted to use legilimency on his older brother but the boy averted his eyes away from Harry "Don't try to pass judgment on me just yet, Harry." At this Harry could feel a shiver run down his spine, had Itachi known about Harry's skills of the mind arts or was he just trying to decipher the look I had on my face?

"Sasuke, let's go. School will start in a few minutes."

* * *

><p><strong>T minus one<strong>

Hiruzen Sarutobi sometimes really hated his job; his old bones while still strong were getting tired. He needed to find a proper ninja to take his place, but the only ones strong enough had all but outright turned his offer down.

Sarutobi had seen some of the younger ninja with immense potential, there was Hatake Kakashi who was surely becoming more and more qualified but the boy was still so young he could not possibly place a burden like the hokage's hat on him.

There was also the brilliant Nara-clan head, but the man while intelligent would never be able to protect the entire village if it were to be attacked by anyone stronger than an A-rank shinobi.

There of course was the young Uchiha boy, Itachi, the boy had shown his undying loyalty to the village and had power to spare but he, like Kakashi, was not yet fit to bear the burden of the hokage's hat.

Hiruzen had been so extremely busy the last year, there had been pressure from the Hyuuga clan that wanted to expand upon their already larger than needed compound. The villagers had hostile towards his jinchuuriki and those Uchiha's with their plotting had not been making his job any easier.

He had tried to talk to them, to compensate them somehow but their demands were so much higher than could be met. He was going to talk to the clan head of the Uchiha again next week and he knew that it was that exact day they would try to kill him, he would meet them with equal force if it came to that.

* * *

><p><strong>T minus one point nine<strong>

Sasuke and Harry were walking towards school, they had been shocked at what had happened earlier that day and Harry could feel the tension that was in the air ever since the day before, the day that Uchiha Shisui, his cousin twice removed, had been found dead, drifting in the water. Supposedly having committed suicide stating that all the pressure he had been feeling had finally become too much and the only way out was to take his own life.

Harry knew something big was about to go down, experience had taught him that much, it was as if it was all a play that someone was orchestrating somewhere behind the scenes.

However Harry had only found out that the Uchiha were going to try to overthrow the hokage, his clan was practically radiating those thoughts, they were on edge and tried to conceal their movements but they were clumsy, Harry could see clearly that they would never succeed.

The only one who he had not been able to meet because they would never meet eyes was Itachi.

"Sasuke, do you think we, as Uchiha are better than the rest of the village?" Harry asked of the boy walking beside him.

"Of course, we are Uchiha, who could possibly be better than us, Harry?" Sasuke said with absolute certainty.

"Hmm, I see" Harry said to the now curious eight years old.

"What do you see, Harry?" Sasuke asked in return.

"I think I see that if you don't watch where you are walking you will wal- too late" Harry said as Sasuke stepped in a rather big sized dog's droppings.

* * *

><p><strong>T minus one point six<strong>

Harry was sitting in his room, reading a book about the Theory of Tobirama Senju, that suggested that in theory it was possible to gain access to the pure world through a perfect combination of spiritual and physical energy, mixed with the DNA of the deceased and blood of the living, it was quite gruesome Harry thought to himself and he wondered why this book was accessible to the public, let alone a three year old child.

Harry was reading with his sharingan activated and he could see the dirty fingers of all the past readers of this book, it were not many Harry concluded perhaps not more than eight, it was not easy reading material so it did not surprise harry all that much, however what did surprise him were the few snake scale imprints he had found on some of the pages, it was quit the riddle.

"Haru, I want to talk to you about your training."Fugaku, his father, told Harry while he was standing in the doorway to Harry's room.

"Oh, of course father." Harry knew how much the man appreciated it when he was talked to respectfully.

"A few years ago you, and I do not know if you remember this, you used the Goukakyuu no jutsu, it was a truly magnificent sight to behold." At hearing this Harry looked at his second biological father and wondered what the man was up to, they never spoke of that incident.

"I remember clearly father, you saved me and brother that day." Harry responded.

"Yes, you were not fully able to control the chakra back then and it caused a huge flame, we will however start practicing that jutsu again sometime next week, we are going to see how much chakra you can put in it, I will of course make sure it will cause no one any harm." Harry, not believing a word his father said decided to probe the man's mind and was disgusted by what he found out.

He felt hurt, his father, a man that was supposed to love him more than life wanted to use him to attack the village. That was not entirely correct, he wanted to use Harry as a diversion so that he could kill the hokage! So that was going to be the plan, harry thought to himself.

"Of course father, but is it wise to not wait until after my genin exam, I have to study really hard this week if I want to get perfect scores father." Harry tried to ask of his father but he knew it would never work.

"Haru, this will not take much time, you are a fast learner, I am sure you will manage." Fugaku said.

Harry wanted to scream at the man "Fugaku, you fool, this coup of yours will never work, and you are being set up. The seed of hatred and endless ambition that was planted into this clan was planted by the very people who will be your very enemy, who will not hesitate to slaughter each and every man and wife in this clan. Is our life that meaningless compared to your ambition and arrogance!"

But Harry said none of that, instead he gave a nod and hoped for the best.

* * *

><p><strong>T minus one point four<strong>

"Itachi, we need to talk, preferably under just four eyes." Harry said to his oldest brother, who looked in surprise at the boy.

"Of course Harry, follow me." Itachi said while walking toward the pond that had once been evaporated.

"What is it Harry-chan?" Itachi asked not knowing where this conversation would go.

"Before you try to do anything foolish, brother, I need you to know that attacking me would be useless." Harry said to Itachi, who had looked at his little brother with a hurt expression in his eyes.

"Itachi, can you remember, two and a half years ago, we were eating dinner and you told us your dream?" Harry asked of the four times older boy that was sitting in front of him who's eyes widened at comprehension. "Tell me about your dream again, I could use some words of hope in these times of arrogance that will slowly rot away our branch on the tree that is Konoha."

"My dream, little Harry, is that we all can live our lives without pain, without hatred."Itachi said while his gaze seemed to be a thousand miles away; "I can see it, it will come and I can only hope I will still be alive when the will of fire is passed onto everyone."

"Itachi I want you to remember that dream, cherish it and know that it is my dream as well to see this world, this world of ninja that slaughter each other for naught but selfishness and pride, can one day see the light that shines so brightly in someone as kindhearted as you. I only wish that the people who are now suffering in the dark could have a light that guided them towards hope and peace."

"Itachi look into my eyes, I want to see the real you that you hide so well." Harry asked of his older brother, readying his mental probe.

As Itachi focused on Harry's eyes he could feel judgment being passed, he could only hope to survive the ruthlessness and utter truth that judgment held.

Harry had suspected a lot of things, but what he learned from Itachi that evening was something that surpassed even his worst case scenario. "I am so sorry Itachi." Harry said as he was hugging his older brother. "I am so sorry I can't help you in this, but I want you to know that I will hold you in my heart and will always think of you as the older brother that taught me to poke Sasuke's forehead just to annoy him, I will remember you as the older brother that when I was three months old slept with me, keeping me warm." Harry said feeling a huge sense of loss of his brother that would have to do such a horrible thing.

And If Itachi could have seen Harry's face he would have seen that tears of blood were running down his face, but he did not because his eyes were closed feeling so secure in that moment he wanted to stay in it. And while Harry was walking back to his room Itachi was still sitting in the same position wondering how his little brother could be so wise while so young.

* * *

><p><strong>T minus zero<strong>

Harry and Sasuke were walking passed the walls of the Uchiha district and the sight that met them was one of despair and destruction, Harry knew what this meant, Itachi and the masked man and from what he could feel someone else as well, the Uchiha massacre had taken place.

* * *

><p><strong>T minus zero<strong>

Fugaku and Mikoto were sitting in their kitchen waiting for their children to come home, Mikoto had cooked a delicious meal and it was ready to be served.

The couple with three sons however were not sitting because they were waiting, no they were waiting because they were sitting, they could not move it was as if some sort of neuron-toxin had stopped their muscles from working, all they could do was breath and hope that one of their children would bring them to the hospital before someone took advantage of their precarious position.

Their faces remained emotionless despite the inner turmoil they were experiencing, not because they did not want to scream in anger and helplessness but because even those muscles were not working, the only muscles that seemed to work were the heart and lungs, but they did not know for how much longer.

When they saw that Itachi walked through the doors, smudged with blood they knew something was utterly wrong, had their coup been brought to the light? Had Itachi been attacked, or worse was Itachi the one attacking.

They could see the light that was reflected from his red eyes, the tell-tale sign that he had his sharingan activated but they could see it was not just the normal sharingan. No it was something that no Uchiha should have achieved, the Mangekyou Sharingan, the kaleidoscope that would lose its light when used excessively.

Mikoto wanted to scream, to run but she could do none of that all that she could do was listen to the footsteps of their oldest son, listen to his words that were cutting in to them while he was walking so carefully towards them with an unsheathed sword in his hand, ready for the final strike if needed.

"Arrogance and pride, I told you all it would be the downfall of this clan but no one listened to me. I warned you yet you turned a deaf ear towards my words of peace. Can you see now the truth I was speaking, can you see now that your reality, your dreams and pride have been shattered, that they are nothing but illusions that cannot last under my eyes?" watery tears were running down Itachi's face.

"You have forced my hand father, with your unlimited desire for more power, for more honors. You have doomed this clan the day you all thought you DESERVED more power." Itachi spat out angrily.

"You will die by the weapon you yourself have created, I hope that in the next life you will life your sins in this life will be forgiven, goodbye" And with those last words Itachi stabbed his father through the heart, blood seeping out of the gaping wound while slowly but surely Uchiha Fugaku, father of three sons, loved by his family and husband died, killed by his own weapon, his own son.

Not even looking at his mother, Itachi pulled out the sword that he had plunged into his father's heart and moved over to where he knew his mother was sitting, he slowly raised the bloodied sword again and in one swift movement stabbed his mother through the heart. Itachi could hear the sounds his mother was making, the sounds of someone who was trying to breath but was drowning, slowly in her own blood.

While Itachi's sword just came out of Mikoto's back Sasuke and Harry appeared in the doorway. Itachi could clearly see, despite his teary eyes, that both boys looked shocked and repulsed, but where Sasuke started to scream for a reason Harry looked away in silence.

Itachi knew he had to wound his brothers as well for it to be believable for the villagers and ninja that were not aware of the plan.

It was for that reason that Itachi used Tsukuyomi on Sasuke first, torturing the young boy that had no defenses to his genjutsu whatsoever. He urged to boy to come at him with revenge, he urged his younger brother to purge Itachi of his sins when he was strong enough.

And he turned to Harry, who was now holding Sasuke's hand, the little boy that had his sharingan spinning wildly, but not just any form of the sharingan but the most dreadful form of it, the mangekyou sharingan, spoke to Itachi; "I am sorry Itachi, but I cannot allow you to wound me or Sasuke any further. You once promised us that you would protect us forever and I know why you are doing this but it is futile, I will never grow to hate you, I have lived too long for hatred to consume me like that, I already forgave you Itachi." And with that the two boys disappeared in a soft pop leaving behind a very confused Itachi.

"Interesting brothers you have, Itachi-kun, how come you never told me about them. I wonder, are you keeping secrets from me?" a masked man asked of the teenager.

"They are nothing of importance, Madara." Itachi said defiantly; "I will deal with them accordingly when the time comes."

* * *

><p><strong>T minus zero<strong>

In the office of the hokage four people were sitting discussing the fate of the Uchiha clan.

"I will talk to them once more." Sarutobi said. "I will implore them to see reason, explain that their course of action could only lead to destruction." The old man said with a voice that betrayed his doubt.

Danzo looked outside and with a cunning smile said: "That will no longer be necessary, Hiruzen."

"Sarutobi, your inaction and kind heart were slowly giving way to the Uchiha, we could now allow that." Homaru spoke meeting the hokage's furious gaze head on.

"You have defied you hokage?" The old man said, increasing his presence in the room with his growing anger. "You who have sworn loyalty to ME, have gone around my back and betrayed my confidence in you?" the man seemed to explode in anger but as sudden as his anger had risen it had also faded away to give way to a cold expressionless and calculating look that seemed to scare the three councilman and woman far more than his anger had.

"Tell me your plan." The third hokage demanded of the three people in front of him. "Now."

* * *

><p><strong>AN<strong>: Hey all, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did. For those of you who are interested, I try to update my profile daily with the story statistics and small updates on the next chapter with tidbits of information that might give some extra insight to the careful reader. at the moment you can see Harry's mangekyou, I believe that some of you will recognize what it is based off.

Also; I am working on **a new summary** for this story, I never liked the old one, it felt a little too cliché so I want your votes on the ones I posted below.

Option one: James Potter was old and tired; he knew what had to be done in order to rid the world of his biggest burden; however the consequences of his actions seemed to be of a scale much bigger than he imagined.

Option two: Sacrificing his very own life, Harry finds that his reward is not seeing his loved ones but a very special new journey that takes him to the lands of the ancient shinobi world. Can Harry still be Harry in such a ruthless place?

Option three: Having destroyed Voldemort, Harry lives a life that encompasses centuries, feeling old and tired Harry takes one final gamble to destroy the deathly hallows. After decades of careful planning Madara's plans are threatened by a mere boy.

Option four: Make a summary of your own and I might use it! Giving full credit to you in the prologue.

I broke an implicit promise this chapter, I wonder who will notice what promise that was. One tip : Chapter 3.


	10. Passing Judgment

**AN: **Everyone who reviewed, a Huge thank you! It really motivated me, also I can't believe how fast the last chapter gained readers, it now has the same amount of visitors (in barely a day) that the chapter before that one took twice as long for, awesome right?

Mixed reviews about the previous chapter, mostly good but still a few people who were confused or dissappointed I had to keep the Uchiha Massacre pretty much the same as in the Manga. However I believe that this chapter will explain a bit more about what really went on without giving too much away.

A few things that should be noted:

**1-** About Harry's MS and how he gained access to it(for a picture check my profile): I hinted about this in chapter 9; remember how Harry hugged Itachi, feeling a huge sense of loss?  
>The way I see it the mangekyou can (tradionally) be obtained through two methods, both having to do with a loss of some kind.<p>

We have Itachi's, the loss of a friend at your own hands.  
>We have Kakashi's the loss of a friend due to your own (involuntary) inaction.<p>

Now imagine Harry's situation, by not doing anything to stop Itachi he had to experience both senses of loss, and thus he awakened the kaleidoscope.  
>I hope this explains it a bit more indepth than it will be explained in the story for a while.<p>

**2- **Harry's access to his magic: Simply explained, he does not have any access to it, whatsoever. Which has a multiple of reason, the one i will mention is that Harry cannot become a god that easily, haha. Harry is and will be able to do the following things : Apparition, Legillimency (lovingly refered to as passing judgment in this fic), Occlumency and his extreme healing abilities hinted about in chapter 2 Family bonding time. However I must tell you that he does not use his magic for that but his chakra.

Now on to the next chapter that has been Beta'd by the lovely, awesome and brilliant Xhexia, did I mention she works incredibly fast as well?

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 9: Passing Judgment<strong>

Harry had taken Sasuke away from Itachi through apparition to the only safe place he knew in Konoha that was not located in the Uchiha District. So after entering the hospital through the front door where Harry had dropped Sasuke off he went to the Hokage, knowing that the man would probably like to be informed of the two sole survivors of the massacre he never gave permission for. So walking back outside he could not help but notice his eyes, they looked nothing like the sharingan he used to have, they looked different, and very much so. "So this is my Mangekyou" Harry wondered out loud, seeing the red- black eyes that stared back at him, almost willing him to keep on watching, so mesmerizing that Harry had to forcefully think about moving his eyes away from his own gaze using his occlumency to keep that compulsion to keep on watching away.

"The cursed eyes of the kaleidoscope to think that after the deathly hallows I have yet to bear another burden of this magnitude." Harry whispered to his reflection, stopping the flow of chakra to his eyes and thus putting the kaleidoscope to sleep. His mangekyou frightened him, the likeliness to the deathly hallows was too big for Harry to just ignore, was he still master of death, and if he was, what did that mean? Hoping to find an answer to those questions later Harry moved on, he had a Hokage to speak

* * *

><p>"We need help!" shrieked a woman as a small boy walked in while carrying a much older boy on his back.<p>

"He needs help." The boy said, turned around and walked away "I'll be back as soon as possible take care of him." He said to the nurse before he exited the building, staring at his reflection before he vanished from the spot.

* * *

><p>Sarutobi Hiruzen had just been debriefed of the plan the three council members had enacted. And where most Kage would feel relieved that such a problem had been taken care of without much bloodshed, he could only feel like he had failed. Despite everything, the Uchiha were still his to protect and he had failed monumentally. Every woman, every child and every man that belonged to that clan had been killed, and that all by a mere boy and a neuron-toxin that Danzo had refused to give him more information about other than that it was airborne and contained with a barrier jutsu.<p>

Sarutobi knew that there must have been more going on than just that, but he could not quite put his finger on it. He simply had not gotten the time to really process it all, and he would not get it anytime soon, because after informing his ninja's of the fact that Uchiha Itachi was now a missing nin he heard someone knock on his office door.

"Come in." the tired voice of the third hokage said, while looking at the mountains of paperwork this massacre had already caused.

The door slowly opened and Hiruzen saw that a young boy walked into his office, the boy could not have been older than 4 years. Hiruzen had seen the boy; his extremely fast advancement through the ninja academy had brought the boys file to his attention.

His teachers said he was a prodigy, a genius; the boy could read, write and seemed to soak information like a sponge. But while the boy was smart he was also socially skilled. It was that last comment that had surprised the hokage; normally children that were advancing at even half the pace of the boy in front him were closed off, socially inept terrifyingly good ninja.

"Uchiha Haru, you are still alive!" the hokage said, feeling shocked, relieved, sad and happy at the same time. "I... I…" the hokage did not know what to say to the boy, the guilt he felt preventing him from speaking any further.

"Sarutobi Hiruzen, sir, we need to have a long talk about certain events that had just transpired in the Uchiha District without your consent." The boy said evenly, emotionless and with a look that told Hiruzen that this boy, was anything but ordinary.

The boy walked towards the chair in front of his desk and sat down. "Please, Hokage-sama don't look at me as if I am a ghost of some sort, I can guarantee you, I am very much alive unlike some of my... clan." The hokage responded to this by nodding. In the presence of this child he felt almost like a toddler himself despite the fact that he was almost fifteen times as old.

"I see." Said the hokage, thinking it better to wait for the boy to lead this conversation, despite the fact that he was so young, he seemed to demand respect and a listening ear with his posture and tone of voice alone, in truth it freaked him out a little bit.

"My family, and by that I mean the Uchiha clan, had been trying to organize a coup de tat. I know you were aware of this, I believe it was my oldest brother Uchiha Itachi that brought this to your attention, am I correct in my assumption?" Harry asked of the man looking directly in the grey eyes of the man.

"I had no real information about it, no; Itachi was very helpful in that regard." Sarutobi said to the boy that seemed to judge his very soul with that look in his eyes, a look that he could not break away from.

"But you had your suspicions, you were warned by your teachers, the first and second Hokage's themselves to be wary of the Uchiha, were you not?" the boy stated more than asked.

"Yet, you wanted to really give the Uchiha a chance to redeem themselves your actions speak volumes of you character Sarutobi Hiruzen. Yet you think you are weak because of your compassion?" the boy continued on, as if explaining Hiruzen who he himself was.

"Every Ninja, every villager, everyone in the village of Konoha falls under my protection Uchiha Haru. And sometimes protection means that tough choices must be made. I wanted to give the Uchiha a fair chance and it was by far the toughest choice I've made in a long time." Hiruzen explained the boy.

"I see. You could have done what was easy and kill them all directly after hearing about their insubordination or you could do what was right and try to find out what was wrong and heal those pestering wounds." The boy sitting in front of him said dissecting his very thoughts it seemed. "Hiruzen Sarutobi you are a wise man do not doubt yourself. Your will of fire burns with intensity that is indeed worthy of the position you have gained so long ago. As Uchiha representative I ask you to personally forgive the remaining Uchiha's of their family's mistakes because even though you understood so well, the reasons for their betrayal you have yet to come at peace with it, forgiveness might help you and us." The boy said while his emerald green eyes seemed to sparkle slightly.

"You mean there are more Uchiha left than you Haru?" Hiruzen asked of the boy. He had not heard that Itachi had left any Uchiha alive.

"Sadly only one more a tortured boy that goes by the name of Uchiha Sasuke. Itachi tortured him with what I believe was a genjutsu named Tsukuyomi, from what I gathered he showed my brother the death of our parents for a consecutive seventy-two hours while claiming that he was helpless and could only watch that he was too weak to stop him." Harry said with sadness apparent on his face and for the first time since he walked into the Hokage's office the boy looked just like the child he was a three year old child that had just lost everything he ever had.

"I, Hiruzen Sarutobi, forgive the Uchiha clan of their sins." Sarutobi said, and it was as if a huge weight was lifted of his shoulders.

"I, Uchiha Haru, forgive the village of Konoha of the acts that were committed earlier this day, forgive but not forget. It was a lesson in humility far too valuable. Many a man don't learn such a lesson in their lifetime." Haru said.

"I will be completely honest with you, Hiruzen Sarutobi, I was not aware that not only the political active villagers or ninja would be killed but also the children, the innocent, the peaceful. Neither did my oldest brother, Itachi." The boy confessed to him.

"I was very much aware that most of my family would die, I had accepted that, they were power hungry it was needed. I happen to know that Itachi had help from a third party, a party named Akatsuki and that one of their members is named Uchiha Madara." He told the old man in front of him.

Uchiha Madara! But that man had died years ago, the man would be too old to still be an active ninja.

Sarutobi felt baffled, the boy in front of him knew so much, it was as if he had been reading every sealed off recorded secret. And the only reason he did not arrest the boy in front of him was because for the oddest reason he trusted the boy completely. He had been so honest. He had to ask him why.

"Why are you telling me about all of this, Uchiha Haru, how do you know all this?" He asked of the boy that was calmly sitting in the chair that was obviously way too big for him.

Harry looked up at this question, his Dumbledore impression failing for a second. "Those with burdens and expectations placed upon them have two options; you walk the road paved for you grow stronger and realize it is not a burden to bear alone or you stand still collapsing with the weight you cannot lift any longer." The boy said his eyes now twinkling like as if the stars were hidden in them. "I have been walking for far longer than you expect hokage-sama. And I'm tired of having to keep walking alone, so I confide in you. I have judged you worthy of being trusted do not take that honor lightly." The boy said clearly hoping that he, Hiruzen, did not betray that trust. "As for your second question please don't ask me how I know this information again, let's just say you stumbled upon a file, this information might be useless to you now, it does not help you unravel the secrets that Danzo has held so close to his chest but I believe it can give you peace of mind to know that the boy that came to you two and a half years ago did not mindlessly slaughter children, did not mindlessly slaughter anyone, every life he took he cried for. Every life he took was so that the village he loves so dearly can remain."

It was those last words that made Hiruzen actually proud of the Uchiha boy that had massacred his own clan. "So the fire still burned brightly even after all that he had to endure, Uchiha Haru, thank you." He said trying hard not to show just how affected he actually was and the boy just nodded.

"Now, to discuss something else entirely, Sasuke and I will take our residence in…"

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><p>After leaving the Hokage's office feeling quite content about having his goals achieved Harry wanted to see how Sasuke was doing. He had felt a bit guilty about leaving his brother behind in the hospital.<p>

He actually felt guilty about a lot of things but he could rationalize his decisions. He had allowed Itachi to kill most of the clan because if he had not a lot more of innocent people would have been wounded and dead by allowing the Uchiha clan to be decimated he was sure that Konoha would not be attacked right after the coup de tat by other villages.

Yet he had not thought that the Akatsuki would be hired as well to slaughter all the innocents that Itachi would keep alive. They had planned it so well. They were going to keep himself and Sasuke out of trouble by sending Sasuke after Harry when he did not show up on time for dinner taking his merry time Harry would slow down Sasuke enough for the massacre to happened so that Sasuke and he would not be forced to sit unable to move because of the neuron-toxin and watch their parents to be killed.

Harry could see why Itachi had panicked and had decided to put Sasuke through his version of hell so he could let Sasuke kill him but Harry could not agree with such nonsense.

Once Sasuke would wake up Harry was going to explain everything to the boy and hope that by easing him into it could make sure that Sasuke would forgive not only his parents and clan but also Itachi and the village. Harry knew it would not be easy, the boy could hold on to a grudge as good as a kneazle could.

Opening the doors of the hospital Harry asked in his cutest voice that was sure to charm the receptionist "Ma'am, hello uhmm my brother was brought in here a few hours ago. He was wearing a dark blue shirt and he has black hair, can you bring me to his room I really want to see how he is doing" Batting his eyes a few times Harry knew that he had succeeded.

"Sure sweetie, tell me what is your name?" The nurse asked trying to make the atmosphere as easy going as possible, his brother was in pretty bad shape after all.

"I'm Harry" Harry responded hoping that the woman would hurry up with her questions. "Okay, here is a pass with your name on it Harry, make sure to keep it on you while you are in the hospital or you are not allowed into your big brothers room okay sweetie?" the woman said giving him the pass and motioning for a nurse to come and guide him to Sasuke's room.

It took a while for Harry to reach Sasuke's room but the nurse had been funny, telling him a few jokes, so Harry had laughed and acted the part of a child that was just slightly older than he really was, Harry hoped that he could learn to use some really good genjutsu's to hide the fact he looked no older than four years, he had read after all that Tsunade, slug queen, Senju used a genjutsu that made her look like she was twenty-five.

Entering the room he could see the boy he had for three years called his brother. "Thank you very much for bringing me here Miss Nurse.

"It was no problem, if there is anything you need to press the blue button okay?" the nurse responded with a sickly childish voice, but Harry nodded seriously and thanked her again after which she left the room.

"Sasuke, as soon as you wake up I'm going to tell you a long story about how a boy not much older than you was told that his family was going to betray the village that he had come to love so much." Harry said while softly wiping of the sweat on Sasuke's forehead with a towel. "Just wake up okay buddy I have so much to tell you..."

Harry sat at Sasuke's bed for hours until the clock struck three hours past midnight and Harry had to visit one more person for that day.

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><p>Danzo was trying to catch some sleep, his careful planning with the Akatsuki and the Hokage's advisors had finally been useful. He had collected ten fully awakened sharingans on top of the sharingan he had taken from Uchiha Shisui.<p>

Yes it was a most fruitful plan that he had enacted that had served both him and the village well.

Because now he had access to Izanagi, the jutsu that would ensure his victory over the other countries. And if his deal with Orochimaru would work he might even be able to not only be able to use Izanagi more than once per eye but he might just get the position of Hokage and lead Konoha in times of prosper with his strong iron fist he would make sure that Konoha would train it's ninja's to believe not in that useless will of fire but in the power of Konoha, the supremacy of the great tree.

It was a shame that he could not gain access to the eyes of the Uchiha that had awakened his eyes at birth, he was sure there was more to those eyes than just the regular sharingan abilities, he had heard that those that were looked directly in the eyes by the boy would feel as if their very essence was being judged. It was something that intrigued him, if his suspicions were correct, which most of the time they were than that boy's eyes were far more valuable than the eye he had taken from Shisui.

He had to get the boy but he would think about that another time. He needed to sleep tomorrow he would meet with Orochimaru and he needed to be properly rested to make sure he took the most profit out of their deal.

Danzo was finally asleep when he was awoken by a soft pop sound. Pretending to still be sleeping he grabbed the kunai that he had hidden under his pillow. He wondered how anyone could have gotten past his seals, it was top- notch work, it was after all the old house of the Yondaime he had taken refuge in when that man sacrificed himself for Konoha whoever had entered must have been a very experienced seal master.

"Put away that kunai, Danzo Shimaru, at the moment I do not mean you any harm." Danzo heard a high pitched voice tell him. "At least not yet."

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><p>Harry had found out where Danzo lived from the Hokage's mind he could clearly see how it looked and where in the village it was. To think that all Harry had needed to do to get so much information about this man was to drop his name in a conversation was simply astounding these ninja's with all their secrets had no occlumency whatsoever.<p>

Harry had tried to not use legilimency on his family, he really had but in the end he was content with the outcome of his invasion into their privacy, all he wanted to know was why his father was spending such excessive amounts of time in the meeting room. Harry could see there was something going on but he had not known what, one tiny glance into the man's mind later and Harry knew one of the best kept secrets in Konoha.

Yes legilimency surely was a gift that was extremely useful too bad he could not really gain experiences that way or he would be able to figure out how those seals really worked that Danzo had all over this house. All Harry knew right now was how to deactivate them but he did not understand it, truly it was the only flaw legilimency had and at the moment it annoyed him greatly. He needed time to dissect the information carefully but he had been in a hurry he needed to talk to this man he needed to know more about the massacre. Itachi after all only knew so much.

Harry could hear that Danzo's breathing turned irregular for a second and that the hand that was first under the man's blanket was now under his pillow. Surely the man did not think he could be stopped by a mere kunai.

"Put away that kunai, Danzo Shimaru, at the moment I do not mean you any harm." Harry said trying to think of how Voldemort and all those other creeps use to talk. "At least not yet."

"You see, Danzo Shimaru, we need to have a conversation, I know what you did all I want from you is a simple explanation as to why." Harry said turning on the lights in the room. "So please join me in the living room after you put on some clothes, which would surely be a much better sight than those undergarments... nice bunnies by the way." Harry said to the man while turning around and walking to the living room.

Harry took place in on the couch hoping unlike the chair in the Hokage's office wouldn't make him look like he was a three year old with delusions of grandeur.

As Danzo got into the living room Harry could feel that the man was reaching out with his chakra to Harry. Harry let the man do his thing he was most likely checking for genjutsu's.

"I assure you, I am not a nightmare or a genjutsu's Danzo Shimaru. I am but a child." Harry said to the man while chuckling slightly. Knowing that his voice still had that high pitch Harry knew that he would not be taken seriously if he did not freak the man out.

"You worked together with the Akatasuki." Harry stated while looking at Danzo's eye "Look me in the eye and tell me that you only had the best intentions for the village at heart and I won't tell the Hokage that I know you were the one that ordered the execution of mere children some not even older than I am." Harry said hoping to catch a glance of the man's thoughts. He could only catch feelings if he did not have eye contact but he needed more information.

"You take me for a fool Uchiha Haru?" Danzo asked of the boy, sulking for the first time since waking up. At Harry's raised eyebrow he continued. "I know you can somehow pass judgment on someone if they look you into the eyes. I have no intention of being judged by a mere child."

At this Harry looked at the man in surprise he had not know that that information was passed down this fast he was sure it would take years before anyone would see a connection between the feeling of judgment and actually being judged as these people called it.

"I see I am but a child in your eyes. I can still judge your sincerity though by your voice alone." Harry said looking shrewdly at the man. "Tell me why and I will tell you a secret you do not know yet, a secret so coveted that you will beg me to tell you more once you hear it." Harry said hoping to bribe the man for information.

However another idea suddenly came alive in Harry's mind if he could use that mangekyou again perhaps it would force this man just like it had forced himself, to look him in the eye, well he would use that as a last resort.

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><p>Danzo could feel that the child in front of him was anything but a child, it was not possible, nothing in his reports about this boy had told him that the kid would be able to play such mind games, trying to convince him with secrets he did not know yet how well did this child, this cursed child know him?<p>

"How about this boy!"He wanted to test the boy, how good was he? What were his limits? He looked at the boy and could clearly see that he flinched at being called a boy. He probably thought himself to be better than just a boy. That was useful information. "I have not ordered anyone to slaughter the Uchiha of that I am innocent." He told the boy, it was not really a lie, it was after all he who merely suggested to Koharu that this plan could work but in the end it was Koharu that had ordered the attack.

Danzo kept looking at the boy and it was almost as if the boy was smiling. Hmm could he see that it was not the entire truth? He wondered, but not for long as the boy started to speak again.

"That is but an omission from the truth. How very sneaky of you Danzo Shimaru." The child said to him, and he looked and sounded somewhat impressed. Was he close to the limit of the boy's gift of finding out the truth?

The boy looked at him as if amused again "Now let me tell you what I learned of you just because you said that line." At this Danzo stiffened and tried to look at the boy a bit better almost wanting to reveal his stolen eye to see so much more. Could he really pass judgment based on words alone? Truly the gifts of the Uchiha were astounding. Danzo thought to himself.

"You feel burdened, tired even. Having to take care of all the nasty tasks in the shadow while Sarutobi Hiruzen stands in the light in a position of power that is almost absolute, while he is weak he gets so much appreciation for this village that you fight so hard for but you get nothing but weary looks for." At hearing this, Danzo was sure that he needed this boy to join root. Not only was he a prodigy but he was a walking lie-detector more thorough than Ibiki himself.

"How interesting I have an offer for you Uchiha Haru. An offer you cannot resist!" he said. Danzo knew better than to use his new sharingan on the boy, surely he was too gifted to be influenced like that. No, Danzo had a very smart plan indeed. He could offer this boy his parents back, surely Orochimaru wouldn't mind to summon them if he gave him their DNA and a sharingan eye.

The boy in front of him looked mildly interested in the idea of a counter offer.

"Join me and my forces, I could make you great grant you power like no other and in turn all I ask is that you join my forces. I will even grant you your deepest desire I will bring back your parents from the dead!" and as those last three words came out of his mouth, Danzo looked directly into the green eyes that were not green anymore and his entire world went black.

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><p><strong>AN<strong>: Cliffhanger!

Summary #2 won and so it has been updated.

Leave your reviews not because you want to make me happy but because you want your chapters faster, really they are like crack to me, one review equals twenty minutes of writing or more spent awake that i should have spent sleeping!

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Next chapter will most likely be posted saturday.


	11. The green eyed God

**AN:** This chapter did not want to be written, the Danzo bits must have been re-written at least three times by now and I still don't like how it turned out. So my apologies for that.

That being said; THANK YOU for the 30, yes **30**! reviews they really were the only things that made me keep writing this atrocious chapter and I actually already have written around fifty percent of the next chapter.

This is the beta'd version, not much has changed so a reread is not needed. A big thank you for Xhexia for the awesome Beta'ing.

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><p><strong>Chapter 10:<strong> The green eyed God

Danzo woke up, and for a moment he felt disorientated, he was not in his house anymore and a sense of panic should have taken over but despite that he had never felt such pure bliss, he was at total peace, there was a clearer than clear-blue blue sky above him and greener than green grass below him. He could smell his favorite flowers in the air around him, it was perfect and it was because of that that Danzo was trying to stay alert as possible.

The last thing he had remembered was looking in those eyes, those eyes that looked nothing like the green eyes the boy had held earlier. They were full of emotions and they were broadcasting it, it had hit him like a tidal wave; misery, sadness and even a hint of rage had dawned upon him but that did not explain why he was experiencing this right now, because right now it did not really bother him that much. With each passing minute he could feel himself become more at ease.

* * *

><p>He had been in the perfect world for a month now, the troubles he had known in Konoha seemed like a dream that was dreamed so long ago, he had enjoyed nights more clearer than he thought possible he had breathed air that did not hold the blood of the dead in it, it was indeed a perfect world in which he was residing now.<p>

He sometimes wondered what was happening in Konoha, so many plans must have failed because he was not there to ensure success, because he was not there to fix every mistake.  
>But in this perfect world those troubles were far away, in this perfect world he could just be, in peace, Danzo thought as he closed his eyes end decided to sleep again, which turned out to be something he really enjoyed a lot.<p>

* * *

><p>Danzo walked to the waterfall, he had been here for years now and he was used to the nice, pure and cold water that the waterfall provided him, Danzo was sure that he was in heaven, if such a thing existed, how could this place be anything but that?<p>

Those judging green eyes must have seen the good and bad he had done and decided that he was worthy of this idyllic place that, while being completely deserted, never felt truly alone. It was as if all the company he needed was the gentle breeze that sometimes made itself known, while the starry sky at night told him stories without words.

The perfectly timed breeze always came when Danzo needed it, yes he must have died and gone to heaven.

* * *

><p>Lying on his back in the greener than green grass looking at the clearer than clear-blue night sky Danzo was thinking about the mistakes he had made when he was alive, not that it bothered him anymore, he had not dared to think about his actions when he was still alive afraid of what he would find out about himself. He had been in heaven for almost a hundred years now and he had realized that in his previous life he was a bitter man, someone who was too consumed with his own version of the truth.<p>

His heart had been in the right place 'but did the ends really justify the means?' Danzo asked of himself. He knew by now that in this unchanging perfect world he could ponder on such trivial things as what was right and wrong. Thinking about his actions as the leader of Root, he could not help but think about the painful questions he had asked of himself so far. Had his actions helped the village or done it more harm and after thinking about that question for years now, he came to the conclusion that only time would've told him.

"And that, Danzo Shimaru, was the only answer you needed to find." A child-like voice said.

If Danzo had still been living he was sure he would have reacted in shock to this change to the world around him, it had been silent for so long he should have been surprised, but in truth he wasn't, he had spent too long in this blissful place without real concerns to start caring about it now.

"So are you god?" Danzo asked after a few minutes while staring at the stars that were now like his friends.

Danzo could hear the voice laugh a truly cheerful laugh, a perfect laugh. A perfect laugh for this perfect world, I really enjoy it here. Danzo thought to himself.

"Danzo Shimaru, do you know why you have been here for two hundred and twenty-seven years?" the voice asked of him. Danzo should have been shocked by this; that was at least twice as long as he had thought he had been in heaven.

"No." the man said truthfully. "I am still not sure why I have gone to heaven and not to hell; did the end justify the means? Was it all worth it?" He asked of the voice that he recognized somehow, as if he had conversed with it before.

"Perhaps you should sit up and have some tea with me, Danzo Shimaru; I believe you will find that it is your favorite flavor." The voice said, and Danzo complied, he stood up and walked towards the chair and table with the tea-set that had not been there before.

At the table he could see a young boy sitting, sipping from his tea and looking at him with huge green orbs. As Danzo sat down he grabbed the cup with strawberry tea and three sugar perfectly stirred and cooled down to precisely the right temperature.

"You are Uchiha Haru!" Danzo said after taking his first sip of his tea, memories that seemed like so long ago started to overwhelm his mind. All those memories and feelings that he had felt and experienced all those years ago were suddenly not that distant anymore, it was as if no time had passed between the offer he had made to the boy and sitting in this chair drinking tea.

"Explain this to me! What have you done, I am not in heaven am I?" Danzo asked of the boy, feeling that his inner peace which he had acquired so long ago had vanished without a trace.

"Calm down, Danzo Shimaru, I will explain everything to you after we have finished drinking our tea." Uchiha Haru said while taking another sip of his tea. Danzo decided that perhaps the best course of action was to patiently wait for the boy to start talking.

And so they sat there for what felt like hours to the man before the boy started to speak. "You have not died, Danzo Shimaru. I have simply shown you my reality, a dream I wish to share with the world."

Danzo looked at the boy wondering what he meant by that.

"When an Uchiha is born they are rinsed by the mid-wife and taken by the council to the Ancient Stone Tablet, the stone tablet can be read in various ways. I was born with a fully awakened sharingan and I could read the tablet and to me it read about a technique so cruel, so decisively meant for torture that I felt sick. At that moment in time I was but a baby not older than twelve hours but I could understand it quite well." Uchiha Haru started to explain to Danzo.

"It taught me about the world of Tsukuyomi, the spiritual world of darkness. I decided that day I would never use Tsukuyomi on a person." The boy said while looking as if his mind was somewhere else. Danzo had heard of the ultimate genjutsu, Tsukuyomi, it was a power to rightfully be feared, many a man had fallen to it, the three days in one second torture genjutsu was unblock able and absolute in its control.

"I created upon awakening my Mangekyou a world of my own, where I control space and time. Where I control everything that is, was and will be. It is something that came to me naturally. You see, every Mangekyou is different, where there are only a few recorded Mangekyou jutsu's there are an endless amount of jutsu's possible with it, each pair of kaleidoscope eyes gaining their own characteristics, their own special jutsu. Mine I like to call 'Tengoku no Yokubou' or Heaven of Desire. I believe you took poor Shisui's eyes because of the gift bestowed upon him by the curse of the kaleidoscope, so I think you understand what I am saying here." Harry told the man.

"I took you into my world, my heaven." The green eyed child said as if it was some sort of honor bestowed upon Danzo.

"And I desired of this world to help you, for you to realize that perhaps your way is not the only way to achieve peace. You who fights the battle in the shadow through manipulation and assassination, needed to remember that you are not infallible. That your choices may not be the right ones. It took you longer, much longer than I thought before you allowed yourself to start to doubt your own actions." Harry told the man in front of him. "Men who are convinced that their way is the only way to ensure peace, destroy more people through their manipulations than they dare admit to themselves, and all that for the greater good, for peace" After saying that Harry poured some more tea in his cup. "But do you think it wise for one man to see himself as a god, to see himself as someone who will be able to change everything?" Harry asked of the man, waiting silently until he got an answer.

"You are but a child, you have not seen the same hardships as me, it changes a man. I will not give excuses for my decisions in the past." Danzo said with a tone that left no discussion left to be held. "However, I have had time to think in this place and… perhaps I could change some decisions for the future. Perhaps your dream of peace, that is not decided by one man but by many has some merit. The roots that have kept Konoha healthy will start surfacing and thus show that the entirety of Konoha is willing to be burned by the will of fire, one tree that will not wither because it stands strong as a whole." Danzo mused out loud to the boy.

"Danzo Shimaru, if you can unite the roots of Konoha with the rest of the tree that stands so mighty in this world. I will allow you to leave this place, but I will keep a close eye on you, and believe me when I tell you this; The attack you have thought up for the chuunin exam in five years time, will. Not. Take. Place. You will withhold all information you wanted to give Orochimaru and you will inform Hiruzen Sarutobi of the possibility that Orochimaru will attack even without your help." Harry said while the heavenly world of Desire was starting to illuminate, growing in brightness.

"One last point advice" Harry's voice, now very low and almost booming out of him, started; "Never use my affection for my parents to gain access to my talents, ever again, I will not join your forces, I will be loyal to my hokage and my family." And when that last word was spoken, the world around Danzo turned white and he had to close his eyes but the light that was engulfing him was still visible through his eye-lids and Danzo whited out, losing conscious.

* * *

><p><strong>Three years ago.<strong>

Harry felt cold, the warm place he had lived in for nine months was so much better than this cold world, blankets in all honesty had nothing on a well-placed warming charm. Harry cursed himself for firing that Avada Kedavra on himself, he didn't have it that bad in his last life, he just wanted to die because of those wretched deathly hallows messing everything up.

But alas, hindsight is always 20-20 if he had known he would be reborn he surely would not have ended his life, previous life. He was rich, had influence, he had the most powerful wand ever in existence and he was an adult...

Harry was currently being doted on by several women, he couldn't see them properly so he pushed magic into his eyes and then he could clearly see the proud faces they had held. It was quite a special feeling to see people look with pride because of him, he wondered why they would feel that way, he was just a baby right?

And they kept talking about something called a sharingan which he seemed to have awakened already, Harry had no idea what a sharingan was but he knew these people were very pleased with whatever it was.

He had been alive for a total of five hours by now and he could not help but enjoy the moment they took him outside, the fresh air in his lungs felt so good, it was almost as if these lungs could feel everything that entered them, as if his old lungs that he had in the past were desensitized. He was getting quite tired by now though but he wanted to know what was happening, it felt like he was going through some kind of ritual. Harry got a bit scared when thinking about rituals with babies, what if they were going to circumcise him!

Harry saw a huge shrine coming closer and he knew that would be their destination, he again pushed magic into his eyes to see more clearly and he could read that the name of this shrine was the Naka shrine. It looked old, older than most of the buildings he had seen thus far.

After entering the shrine Harry was cleaned and the people around him were completely silent, one of the men holding him brought him to the basement and said one of the weirdest things Harry had heard up to that point: "Juubi hold you into his eyes, they eyes that see all, the eyes that hold power unimaginable." The man said while uncloaking Harry, "Be in the presence of our most noble heirloom, granted to us by the rikoudou sennin, observe and learn new Uchiha, let your blood join with the Uchiha spirit and become one of the chosen humans to serve the Juubi." With this said the man took out a kunai and made a tiny incision in Harry's finger and smeared the blood that came out over the huge stone tablet that somehow lighted up.

Harry pushed more magic into his eyes and he could see the stone tablet completely now, the blood somehow transferring some magic into the stone tablet that lit up the stone and the words engraved in it.

"You will spend three hours, thirty minutes and three seconds in the presence of our most coveted heirloom and will bond with the Uchiha spirit." The man said looking a bit crazed, as if the blood he had just smeared on the tablet was some sort of drugs.

Harry was left alone after that, he started to read the the tablet; it was quite a lot of text engraved in it.

'Those pure of blood and spirit can read the stone whole, those with the cursed eye can see all but the wicked truth, they with the white eyes see no more than the last remnant of the Rikoudou and those with the Rikoudou's eyes see more than they ought to." Harry read this and wondered what it actually meant.

"The gift of the sharingan, most beloved by me is naught but the first stage of the eyes that control upon themselves. The three tomoe when seen the hurt of loss become the kaleidoscope that crosses all."

"The Kaleidoscope is the truth of a personality, the embodiment, when engraved in stone three gifts of the kaleidoscope are known that all Uchiha can master. The world of spiritual darkness known as Tsukuyomi, the world that despairs the world that is master of the user if the user is master of the despair, the darkness takes the light and does not return to thy who mastered him completely until thy who is mastered has the four eyes"

"The fires of Amaterasu, are a gift of the blackest flames to thy right eye but the blackest of flames does not distinguish between us and them and thus needs thy judgment and guidance at the price of thy light, thy light diminishes thus thy blackest of flames be darker."

"The third and most coveted of gifts is thy sword and shield, Sasunoo is thy avatar in battle, thy eyes will bleed, thy eyes will darken but thy are unbeatable when truly master of thy avatar."

Harry had to think and read about this further, three gifts bestowed upon those with the kaleidoscope. But there was more.

"Thy kaleidoscope is thy and thy dreams is reality in thy eye. The kaleidoscope offers the power to create and destroy all is in thy power if thy's nature allows it. If thy is master of kaleidoscope thy is master of worlds beyond the pure and impure world"

"But thy can't be master of worlds if thy is but one, thy needs to be two in one for thy to master not only the spiritual worlds but thy needs the physical strength to see further than thy holds possible."

The ominous feeling of doom dawned upon Harry and he knew this world held more terrible secrets than perhaps the world of his previous life had, whatever those gifts are, I will not use it, it sounds like the three unforgivables. Three gifts that you either master or they master you and make your light disappear, it sounds like three gifts he should avoid at all costs.

* * *

><p>'I can't believe that actually worked, but I have a huge migraine now'… Harry thought to himself while lying in bed. He had taken a huge risk when he used that jutsu for the first time on Danzo. That the man had not outright killed him when he entered the building was something he thanked Merlin profusely for. Harry had literally bluffed his way through that meeting.<p>

But he needed that man on his side, through whatever means necessary. He had told Itachi that they had the same dream for the future, and after knowing that a boy of merely 13 years old went through so much pain to realize that dream. Harry knew he could not just sit idly. No he was going to participate in this world, he would become Hokage and he would make sure that this world would unite unlike his last world.

That night, while he was sleeping in his bed a masked man was watching him, "What an interesting child, to confront Danzo like that. Perhaps with his eyes the moon eye plan will be even more successful than with my own Tsukuyomi."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> I am sorry for having to post this horrible chapter, I guess not every chapter can be as good as the last two.

However I believe it should get better next chapter which will have some Harry awesomeness in it.

Feel free to flame this chapter, burn it to the ground or skip it if you ever get to re-reading this story.

Next update will be tomorrow or monday depending on a few things like my amount of strawberry tea and sugar... remember i post spoilers for the next chapter on my profile page, so visit it if you want, or don't, but I try to update it with tiny tidbits and sometimes the spoilers change like chapter title and stuff.


	12. A rather random few days

**AN**: This chapter is a bit crazy, but I enjoyed it a lot, Don't take some of this chapter too seriously. Enjoy the crazy filler chapter.

Our beloved beta-reader Xhexia has despite feeling ill beta'd this chapter, such dedication deserves appreciation. As a writer the best way for me to show that appreciation is in words; Thank you!

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><p><strong>Chapter 11: A rather random few days<strong>

Yesterday had been one of the worst days in his lives, his clan was killed, his brother was tortured, his other brother had killed and tortured, he had to act like some super smart child to two old man with power, but even worse than all that was that the smell of dried blood that was all over his house and the Uchiha district.

Sure the Hokage had made sure it would all be cleaned today but yesterday evening Harry had after all that, for the first time in nearly two centuries, a real nightmare in which every clan member accused him of not doing anything to help them and all harry could do was stand still and listen to their accusations, to their anger their hurt, Harry had woken up drenched in sweat this morning and in truth he was happy it was weekend and he was not needed anywhere.

He would visit Sasuke before lunch and then he would just train, after seeing the memories of Itachi, Hiruzen and Danzo he had learned a lot of things, but he couldn't really do them yet, today he would change that.

So after breakfast Harry went to the garden, the garden where he had played with his mother Mikoto who had loved him so much... Harry pushed the thought away with force, occluding his mind in the hope all those memories could just be pushed back to where they came from.

Next week Harry would have his very first genin exam. He was pretty confident that he would pass with perfect marks, it really wasn't that hard. However he wanted to get better than perfect marks, he had heard he could get two points for each E-ranked jutsu he was capable of doing up to fifty points for each S-rank he could perform. If his plan of becoming Hokage and uniting this world was really something he was going to do then he had to start now. He was going to be the best there was, and if that meant flaunting his skills then so be it. It was for that reason the garden was currently filled with jutsu scrolls his family had collected over the years.

Harry gathered his chakra trying to even out his chakra perfectly to make it as potent as possible, 50 percent physical and 50 percent mental, it took a little while for him to even it out just right but after that he did the hand sign for the bunshin, using a little bit of chakra and let it manifest right of him.  
>It was a perfect copy of his self that was staring at him, but totally useless in a fight, it could not even take a hit.<p>

So Harry picked up the scroll labeled as 'Mizu Bunshin', it did not seem all that difficult, first he would need to create water with his chakra and then he would need to give it form and after that he needed to imprint his will on it, the last phase seemed to be the most difficult so Harry tried it, gathering chakra, forming the hand seals and releasing all the perfectly balanced out chakra to create a bunshin of water. "Hmm, if all these jutsu's are as easy as this c-rank than perhaps ill end up with a score of over five hundred, I wonder if anyone has managed to do that yet."

Next on the list were Doton Bunshins, which were as easy to make as the Mizu Bunshins but seemed to be much sturdier.

After the Doton Bunshin Harry grabbed a scroll with the Kage Bunshin in it. "A shadow clone, how would that work?" Harry wondered out loud. After reading the scroll with his sharingan Harry felt in awe. "Such a versatile jutsu, to be able to create an actual body and make it transfer memories to the user," Harry thought to himself.  
>'I have to try this jutsu, but it is a dangerous B ranked jutsu and requires a lot of chakra, It says here that even a fully-fledged jounin cannot hope to make more than 10 without having to make serious concessions in his jutsu usage.'<p>

'I'll just have to pump a lot of chakra into it, if I balance my chakra perfectly I should be able to do it without much problems, I already know I have more chakra than most, but if a jounin can make only ten then I should definitely be able to make ten as well.' Harry thought while standing up and readying himself.

Harry gathered his chakra and balanced it, using the more potent chakra up till now had always made the jutsu's stronger and he had to use less for his clones with the perfectly balanced chakra but that would not work on the kage bunshin, it would just divide his chakra, it truly was a scary jutsu, to think his family had recorded. It made him very happy because it was just another jutsu that would help him further his goals.

After releasing the chakra Harry felt rather spent, but he looked around and could see that his clones were crowding the garden, a total of seventy-three shadow clones looking back at him in awe. "I can't believe I was able to make this many shadow clones." All the Harrys said out loud.

Harry dispelled each clone individually, because even with an occluded mind he was not sure how that many clones and memories would affect him, and he wasn't all that curious to find out right now.

After having dispelled every shadow Harry could feel that most of his chakra had returned to him, Harry decided to have a short nap before visiting Sasuke.

* * *

><p>It was Monday and so Harry had to go to the academy, he wore all black in honor of his recently died family members and hoped that everyone in his class would just leave him alone. Harry did not talk much with the children during class but during lunchtime he always sat with the boys of his class and they would talk about normal boy things like manga and such.<p>

But with his recently changed goals he would need to train instead of chit- chat so he did not bring any lunch to school, he would regret that decision twenty minutes later as dozens of mothers saw him walk to school without his lunchbox, calling out to him if he, the poor orphan boy wanted them to make him some nice lunch. He would thank them but say that he would eat lunch at home, but some of them were not taking no for an answer that easily and he would just say that his mom always made him lunchboxes and that they reminded him of her and so he did not want any lunchboxes not prepared by his own mother, he would cry and run away after that. Seriously though, did those women not know any tact, he had just lost his family…

At school his teacher was surprised to see him but Harry just grunted, after being all but forced to go back home he snapped; "It is too silent at home, I enjoy spending time away from that place!" successively shutting his teacher up.

Classes that day turned out to be boring so after morning classes were done he visited Sasuke for a bit, the boy was still in a coma but Harry was sure it would not take long before he woke up again. Harry was already dreading the conversation they would have.

At home Harry would train with the jutsu scrolls; he could not train his genjutsu because he had no one to train on so all he trained was his ninjutsu.  
>At this very moment he was working on a fire jutsu that seemed to be much stronger than the Goukakyou no jutsu, it required a lot of seals, a whopping total of thirty-two. Harry was not sure how useful it would be in a battle but it was ranked as a B rank jutsu and would thus increase his score significantly.<p>

The highest score that was ever achieved was by the fourth hokage, with a score of two hundred and twenty-seven. But Harry would be damned if he got beaten by an actual child. Harry knew that with bunshin he mastered this weekend, the fire jutsu's he was training for today and the water jutsu's he would train tomorrow, the test on Wednesday should be a piece of cake for him.

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><p>Today was the day of the academy test, Harry had prepared himself thoroughly, the written exam first and after that he would have to show off the jutsu's he had learned thus far.<p>

Harry had in front of him, the official exam, it was not much but the questions would be tough. When the teacher after five minutes of waiting finally let them start on the exam harry started reading the questions first.

The questions were rather easy, asking of him what reached its destination faster, a kunai or shuriken? Other questions like what is the definition of chakra and name all major villages which hold a kage were almost laughable. Harry thought the written exam should have been much tougher, how could you with only knowing things like that become an actual ninja?

After roughly twenty minutes Harry was done with the test of a hundred useless questions he decided that the best place to look at was the inside of his eyes. Harry slept through the rest of the written exam and after one hour and a half of sleeping it was time for the exciting part. He was going to try and do as many jutsu's as he could remember.

* * *

><p>Harry sat in the hallway; he was already focusing on his chakra, trying to even it out as perfect as possible. He knew that for the next part of the exam he would need to spend his chakra as careful as possible, losing points because of chakra exhaustion was not something he would like to have on his records.<p>

Harry was pulled out of his meditation by a loud voice that called out his name; "Uchiha Haru, come in." Harry stood up and walked into the room, sitting there were three of the examiners, Iruka Imuno, Mizuki Touji and Menumi Mei. "Uchiha Haru, you will perform for us two jutsu's in order they will be, Bunshin and Henge after that you are allowed to showcase your own jutsu's." the female teacher, Mei, told him.

"Of course." Harry said in return, "Bunshin." Harry said out loud and beside him stood two perfect copies of himself. The teachers looked satisfied and were scribbling down his score. After dispelling the bunshin Harry used the Henge to transform himself in Mizuki and Iruka respectively.

"Perfect, Uchiha Haru. Do you have any jutsu's you are confident enough in to showcase for extra credits?" Iruka asked of him. "Yes Iruka-sensei, but perhaps we should go outside. I do not think this room is fire-resistant, is it?" Harry asked.

"Hn, no it is not" Mizuki answered Harry while looking intrigued. He had seen the boy in class for the past eighteen months, and he was a true prodigy. He wondered what the boy would show them.

Harry and the three teachers walked outside and Harry started to explain what he would show them. "I will start with my E-ranked jutsu and going up from there." As the three chuunin nodded at him in answer Harry first performed the Kawarima no jutsu, gaining two points.

"Next will be a series of D ranked jutsu, first Shunshin no justu." After saying that Harrry vanished from sight only to reappear directly in front of his teacher, startling them.

'How interesting, it sounds as if he is capabable of going further than D ranked jutsu' Mizuki thought to himself while watching the child in front of him perform D-ranked jutsu after D-ranked jutsu. "Orochimaru-sama would like to know about this kid."

"Next I will show you my C-ranked jutsu." Harry stated. At this Iruka's eyebrows went up. "Haru, what is the highest ranked jutsu you know?" Iruka asked genuinely interested.

Harry looked at the man in front of him with a quirked eyebrow "I can go up to S-ranked." At this the three instructors looked disbelievingly.

"Could you show us those?"Mizuki asked with a glint in his eyes, already knowing that Orochimaru would be really interested in this boy's file.

"I will get to those as well, but I want to break the record the Fourth made twenty years ago. First some of the weaker ones" Harry explained to them.

* * *

><p>Menumi Mei had been forced to become a teacher after being injured during a mission. She hated her new job those little pests called children were the bane of her existence. However she had to admit that every few years a child would enter the school that was not just a brat.<p>

Sadly this year had been no different, it was actually worse than normal; this year there was a three year old that had started in her class.

And the child was absolutely horrible, he had no personality, always so polite and good-natured but so boring, she rather had ten Kiba's in her class for the rest of her lifetime then one Uchiha for an afternoon. She knew, oh she knew that child was just like every other child, that three year old was a demon in disguise. A boring monster with green eyes too big to fit properly in that tiny head of his.

So when that three year old child had aced the written exam she was of course excited, she was never going to see that child again after the jutsu portion of the exams.

When the boy perfectly performed his jutsu's she was about to tell him that she was very happy for him, because he had graduated with perfect scores, but no the child had to do something unexpected on his last day of school.

So they walked outside where the child performed his dull E-ranked jutsu's and his boring D-ranked tricks. But then, then her colleagues asked the most interesting question. "Haru, what is the highest ranked jutsu you know?" the ponce named Iruka asked of the boy. And Menumi Mei's interest was piqued.

And then the boy had to ruin it by stating: "I can go up to S-ranked." Seriously what child of three years old could do that? The boy was obviously lying through his teeth.

However the only other normal person working at the academy beside her asked the question she was about to ask of the boy, "Could you show us those?" the glint in his eyes clearly showing that he had not bought the lies of that demon-child.

She wanted to laugh, how ridiculous, she was wasting her time here; her sake was waiting at home for her to get drunk on.

"I will get to those as well, but I want to break the record the Fourth made twenty years ago.. first some of the weaker ones" the boy in front of her said with a voice that annoyed her greatly.

"Listen kid, do the jutsu's now or I will fail you right here for lying to your instructors!" she practically yelled at the child. Who in turn looked into her eyes and she felt the weirdest sensation as if he was.. as if he was.. he was the devil and trying to take over her mind! And in a reaction so fast neither Mizuki nor Iruka could stop her she grabbed her kunai and threw it at the child. "Get out of my head! You demon." she yelled franticly.

The demon boys eyes turned red and she knew she had invoked the demons wrath, but she was ready she might not have been in perfect condition but killing this demon was not beyond her abilities, but first she had to get rid of the other two teachers who were now trying to help that demon believing his lies.

She stabbed both of them in their spleen with a kunai and they cried out in pain but would survive. She had a demon to deal with.

She grabbed another kunai and using shunshin she appeared behind the demon that was now telling her to calm down, as if. She was no fool; she could see the wicked smile on that demonic face with those blood red eyes that were now focused on her. The kunai in her hand was ready to imbed in the boys throat when the boy in front of her turned into black crows revealing she was currently under a genjutsu.

Breaking out of the genjutsu she saw the boy looking at her in curiosity, he was mouthing something but in her raging madness she couldn't hear a word and she went after the boy again while her colleagues were still bleeding on the ground unable to move. After a chasing the boy for a couple of seconds she finally had caught him, the kunai in her hand thirsty for blood was closing in on the boy's throat and she, Menumi Mei would rid this world of another demon. As she pierced the throat of that tiny demon she saw her world explode.

Being blasted away from the demon she fell on the ground hitting her head against a rock creating a bloody mess. Before she could get up Anbu started to appear, being alarmed by the explosion.

"Stop that demon! Kill him!" she franticly yelled her speech slightly slurred because of the concussion she just obtained. But the Anbu did nothing, so she as the only sane person at the scene stood up shakingly and readied another kunai and was ready to charge the demon again but was stopped by the Anbu. "Let me go, can you not see that he is the demon, you should hold him not me!" she cried out.

The Anbu looked at his teammate, nodded and knocked Menumi Mei out, effectively ending her tirade.

* * *

><p>Today was one of the worst days in his lives, his teachers had been assaulted, he was currently being tortured, his other teacher had been the one that had assaulted him and his other teachers, he had to act like some innocent child to two ninja's that were currently torturing him by asking silly questions, but even worse than all that was that the smell of dried blood that was all over him and his clothing.<p>

"Kid, tell us again what happened after she told you to either do those jutsu or being failed." Ibiki asked of Harry.

"I looked at her like this." Harry said while staring at the scarred man. "And then she just lost it, throwing a kunai at me, stabbing Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei and then she went after me again. I tried to tell her to calm down but I do not think she could hear me anymore." Harry explained.

"So you were not, as she claimed, trying to take over her mind?" the scarcely dressed woman asked with a hint of glee apparent in her voice.

"No ma'am, though I have always been told that women find my eyes distracting.." Harry told her while staring directly in her eyes and probing her mind very softly.

"Whoa, I see what you mean!" Anko said with a voice that betrayed the intense feeling she was experiencing. "Stop looking at me like that, that is some serious shit you got going on there kid."

Harry looked down, his face turning red. "I am sorry ma'am."

"You're good to go." Ibiki managed to utter out while holding his laugh, yeah the boy had pretty eyes, but they were not that special. Seriously konuichi in this village were getting weirder by the decade.

* * *

><p>"Ibiki, I am telling you it was as if I was being judged, as if he could see all of me and I held no secrets from him. It was intense!" Anko told her partner for the tenth time during lunch. "It must be some sort of jutsu; it cannot be just his normal stare." Anko continued; "I will ask the Hokage about this, he knows all about stuff like this right?" she said eating her last dango stick.<p>

"Sure make a fool of yourself, be my guest but if the old man puts you in a mental ward I won't vouch for your sanity again." Ibiki answered, hoping the woman would just be quiet.

* * *

><p>Sarutobi Hiruzen was sitting behind his desk, he had only a moment ago finished all his paperwork and he was enjoying his new Icha Icha book. Yes the wonders of the writing his student had put out held no boundaries, such beautiful stories, and such works of art. Yes at the moment Sarutobi Hiruzen was enjoying his free time.<p>

The Uchiha massacre had been a few days ago and while he understood why it had to be done, and that the last remaining Uchiha had forgiven him was something that relieved his feelings of guilt greatly. He still felt as if he was part of a game in which he alone was not playing while knowing the rules.

When a knock on the door interrupted his thought process he looked up and told the person to come in.

"Thank you Hiruzen." The man in the doorway said to him. "To take the time for this conversation on such short notice was quite the gesture."

"Take a seat Shimaru, and tell me what this is about." The hokage asked of his old friend, truly having no idea what this conversation would be about.

"Hiruzen, the last few days have been eye-opening for me. I have spent more time than you can imagine thinking about my decisions in my past and present, but more importantly the future." Danzo started with a heavy tone.

Sarutobi looked at the man, what could he possibly be talking about? "Please go on, Shimaru."

"I have so much to tell you, I can only hope you can forgive me when you hear the secrets I have held so close to me for so long." Danzo said while looking the other man into his eyes. "I will start with last Friday evening when I was visited by the most curious child…"


	13. In which we meet  part one

**AN**:

Hey dear readers, sorry for taking so long, school decided i was needed to write a mini-musical... Next chapter is part one of rather lengthy chapter, so I decided to split it in two or three.

Thank you all for the amazing reviews! I truly enjoyed reading and answering them.

Big thank you to Xhexia for the super fast Beta-reading.

Get ready for a crazy chapter, a lot will happen!

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><p><strong>Chapter 12: In which we meet... part one<strong>

Harry, who was now sitting at Sasuke's bedside was rethinking his strategy. So far he had somehow convinced the hokage that he and Sasuke should stay where they were and that they would take care of themselves. All they needed was financial support, which the hokage had granted them.

He had to make a good plan; he was three years, going four years in a few weeks. He would need to be at least an adult before becoming hokage, that meant he had twelve years to make a career as a shinobi and trying to get into politics somehow, perhaps Shimaru could be useful in that aspect, but first he needed to redo his genin test… that Menumi woman really screwed up that part of his plan.

Harry wondered what it was like to become part of a genin-team. He had heard from many people that their first genin team was like family to them because they had been through so much together.  
>Seeing as how small Harry's current family was he was very inviting of the idea of expanding it with good friends.<p>

This year there would be a total of thirty-nine genins, which was quite a lot of people for one year and that, meant many would fail the team-test. Harry wondered what kind of test he would get, the famous do or die test would be quite interesting in which he and his team would have to infiltrate the Hyuuga compound without being seen or be failed at the spot later being asked who was at fault for the failing mission and if any of the team would name a person they would actually fail, it was to test their loyalty to each other. Yes that test would be fun.

Deciding not to get ahead of himself Harry went over his extensive list of jutsu, preparing himself once more for the genin jutsu test.

* * *

><p>Menumi Mei had a hangover. Not just any kind of hangover but a hangover that told her she had done some very stupid things while drunk.<p>

She was sitting in a dark room that was most definitely not her own bedroom. Had she slept with someone, again? She really had to get her drinking habits under control, last time she was as drunk as yesterday she had walked around naked, walked into a giant man with long white hair and had sex with him. She couldn't really remember what happened after having slept with the man. She must have lost consciousness all she knew was that the next day she ached all over and to walk home in nothing more than bed sheets.

So the first thing she checked was her clothing. Thank god! She still had them on, no need to feel ashamed she was probably just-

"Ahh Menumi-san, you're awake," said a voice from outside the room. "There will be someone with you shortly." The voice said.

Mei looked around her again, the room was still dark but there she could see some light coming out from under the door, this looked familiar. This looked very familiar; if she was where she thought she was she really had done something stupid. Was she in … jail?

* * *

><p>Sasuke was walking into the Uchiha district; he had been walking there for what seemed like days. It was dark; the moon that was high in the sky was illuminating the area around him making it seem even darker.<p>

Sasuke knew he was dreaming but for some reason the dream did not stop. It was as if this dream was keeping him safe, even though the horrors he had seen in this dream made him feel anything but.

Sometimes while he was walking the endless roads of the Uchiha district he could hear a voice calling out to him. A very familiar voice that spoke his name, he did not hear it often but whenever he heard it; it was as if the sky seemed to brighten just a bit and the streets would not seem as scary as they usually did.

He could hear himself scream again, it was the scream of terror he had cried out when his brother... his brother Itachi had killed everyone he had ever loved, everyone but him and Harry.

Were they somehow less important, were they not worth it? Did he mean that little to his big brother that he could not even kill him to end this suffering?

He was walking and he could clearly see the shadow that was following him, but despite seeing the shadow he could not who or what it was, all he knew was that if it caught up he would die the most horrible death imaginable. And so Sasuke decided he needed to run, run, run and cling to life

* * *

><p>Uzumaki Naruto did not have many friends, but the ones he had he treasured above everything and everyone else. He was friends with Sasuke's little brother.<p>

Ever since he had heard that the Uchiha clan had been killed by one of their own he had seen Harry daily. Always wanting to play with him, sometimes they would play tag or ninja but most of the time they would just sit on the swings and talk.

Harry was easy to talk to, the boy actually listened to what he had to say and Naruto really looked forward to his play dates with him.

He had told Harry that he wanted to be Hokage one day and he could see that the boy's face lightened up at hearing that "That is a real noble goal you have set for yourself." Harry had said; "But why do you want to be Hokage Naruto?" he had asked after that.

Naruto had answered truthfully: "My dream is to become the greatest Hokage, that way the whole village will stop disrespecting me and treating me like I'm somebody, somebody important".

Harry in turn had looked at Naruto and the eyes that had twinkled just seconds before had turned dull and sad. "That is not a good reason to become Hokage, Naruto, it is rather selfish. I will tell you a secret ambition of mine." Harry had told him.

"I want to become Hokage as well. I want to be Hokage because when I become Hokage I will be able to change this world. I will be able to turn all animosity into cheerful laughter, I will try my hardest to make sure that every orphan will have a family that cares and that every person is allowed to be just who they are, nothing more or less." Harry said to Naruto who looked at him with wide eyes. "When I become Hokage I will meet with every other Kage and I will give them a sample of the truth, making them realize all by themselves," while saying this Harry's eyes had started to turn red and were spinning wildly; "that when one wants peace, one is not enough. Not one village but all villages. Not one Kage but all Kages. Not one person but everyone."

It was that moment in time that Naruto changed his dream; he would not become Hokage, no. "Harry, if that is your dream I will help you, believe it!" and to make sure Harry knew he spoke the truth he said "That is a promise of a lifetime, and I never go back on my promises."

Yes, Uzumaki Naruto did not have many friends, but he was best friends with a boy named Uchiha Harry, a friendship that would change the world, Naruto was sure.

* * *

><p>Kyou had been a ninja for twenty years now, in that time he had seen and done many things. However the last two years he had been assigned a single mission, keeping track of a certain Uchiha boy.<p>

His mission had started after the boy had supposedly burned down an entire garden with one jutsu.

Kyou was sure that the boy wonder knew that he was being watched. He had seen the boy glancing at him from time to time, especially when he was conversing with his brother and lately also when he was talking with the Jinchuuriki.

Kyou at those times would take some distance, not sure if the boy would not just disappear with that jutsu of his, making following the boy that much harder.

Yes he had been trying to follow the boy, but he did not make it easy ever since he had been able to use that jutsu. He had informed his leader of this jutsu and he had been interested, but Kyou still had not found out just how he did it, and apparently no one else was aware the boy could do it, the boy was a true prodigy, being able to keep secrets like that from everyone, everyone but him.

At the moment he was following the boy, he was going to the academy to retake his test, he wondered if it was going to be another drama like last time.

* * *

><p>"Mizuki sensei, why are we going into the forest?" Harry asked of his teacher walking slightly in front of him. "Is Iruka-sensei waiting for us there?"<p>

"Yes, you said you had jutsu's going up to S-rank, which means we probably are going to need more space than the backyard of the academy." Mizuki said while they kept walking. "Iruka is setting up the training ground in the forest, so we can start right away after we arrive..."

Harry never really liked Mizuki; the guy gave the word creepy a whole new meaning. He kind of reminded Harry of Gilderoy Lockhart, someone that laughed and smiled, said the right words and pretended to be someone he was not while everyone was watching but if you took him to the chamber of secrets he would obliviate you. Harry knew he was just overreacting; he did not have any good past experiences with teachers, so he should just get over it, right? Beside he already was attacked by a teacher this year, how big was the chance he would be attacked again?

It was while Harry was trying to think of anything but teachers that had attacked him in his previous life and this one, that Mizuki hit him in the neck, hard.

* * *

><p>Uzumaki Naruto was enjoying the start of his summer; he had spent most of the morning sitting in the swings watching the clouds as he went up and down.<p>

Naruto had been sitting in that swing for quite some time and thus he became bored, bored enough to want to do something else. Ever since he had a friend Naruto noticed that playing alone was rather lonely.

It was for that reason Naruto jumped off the swing and started to walk towards the ninja academy where, as Harry had told him, Harry would retake his jutsu test. Harry said that the last one had been interrupted when one of the teachers had a meltdown, now Naruto had no idea what a meltdown was. For all he knew the teacher had melted like butter in a frying pan but he did know that Harry must have been an awesome ninja if he was already graduating, so he wanted to see what Harry could do.

While walking towards the academy Naruto tried to ignore all the stares people were giving him.

After a while he saw that Harry and Mizuki-sensei were walking together, deciding to follow them Naruto used his skill in hiding he had honed with all his pranks to remain unseen. He was curious, where were they going, was the test not at the academy? Perhaps the teacher's meltdown had caused the school to be inhabitable. But before long Naruto had lost the two as his hunger for ramen overshadowed his thirst for knowledge. And Naruto ended up sitting at Ichiruka's ramen shop.

* * *

><p>Mizuki had reported to Orochimaru-sama about the young Uchiha boy and had gotten a reply within a day. He was to take the boy and bring him to the usual meeting place.<p>

Now Mizuki thought himself to be a rather clever man, becoming a spy in the ninja academy, being able to spot the talented children before they grew up was something Orochimaru-sama had appreciated greatly.

Orochimaru-sama was going to give this boy the chance to become truly great, Mizuki was convinced of that. Perhaps the boy would even get to become one of the new sound-five, he was surely talented enough and with a cursed-seal, who knew what the boy's limits would become.

It was for that reason that Mizuki had lured the boy away from the academy, using his status as teacher he was able to tell the boy they were going to test him in a specially prepared trainings ground in the forest. And the gullible boy had been so eager to believe him, the boy might have been a true genius when it came to jutsu and such but the boy couldn't spot a lie if it was dancing in front of him in a pink tutu.

When they were finally nearing the southern gates Mizuki knocked the boy out, one swift punch in the neck was all that he needed to do and the boy collapsed to the ground, a genius he might be, but he was still a trusting naive child.

Mizuki would be favored above all of Orochimaru-sama's other ninja, he who had been able to get him the Uchiha prodigy.

* * *

><p>Kyou had been ordered to silently follow the boy that was currently walking with Mizuki. Ordered not to interfere and only to report when the boy did anything unusual.<p>

Kyou had done so when the boy had been in the Uchiha district after the massacre, only reporting in after the boy had teleported away using his time/space jutsu with his older brother. It had been quite the surprise to see it happen, he had observed from afar, seeing the two boys run through the streets looking for people who might be alive, after finding no one they went to their home only to be awaited by the oldest brother, Kyou could not hear what they were saying when they talked to each other but he could clearly see Uchiha Haru grabbing his brother Uchiha Sasuke and teleporting away. Confirming the suspicion that the boy's teleportation jutsu could support more than one person. Danzo- Sama had been more than pleased when he reported that fact only one hour later.

Kyou had also only observed when the boy was attacked by his teacher, Menumi Mei. The woman had clearly been intoxicated, her movements were sluggish compared to how she normally moved yet she still managed to subdue two chuunin- instructors but was unable to actually attack the boy wonder. It had been truly fun to see the boy play with her like that, using genjutsus and an exploding clone to distract the woman while waiting for the Anbu to show up. Yes the boy had played the situation brilliantly; he could not be blamed for the self-defense even though it was as clear as day to Kyou that the boy had used his doujutsu of judgment on the woman who reacted badly to it, whether it was on purpose or not was not clear to Kyou.

However, this time Kyou did more than observe. After he saw that Mizuki had knocked out the Uchiha he sent his kikai-bugs to his leader, Danzo, hoping that the man would allow him to either interfere or send back-up to take care of this potential problem.

* * *

><p>Danzo Shimaru was a man that tried to calculate everything before doing something. The meeting he had had with the young Uchiha earlier this week had scared him as much as it had relieved him. Here was a boy that was able to suck him, Danzo Shimaru jounin with more experience than he was given credit for, in a genjutsu so powerful it had not only felt real but it had stretched time and reality. It had been truly fascinating. To think a boy that young was already that capable, it had thrilled him afterwards, that boy while he was sure would not be easy to control was most certainly a ninja that would be able to help this village become more than what it was now, the boy had a vision of peace and strength that was not surpassed by even him or Hiruzen.<p>

Yes, when the time came he was sure he would support the boy to his fullest capabilities in gaining position of hokage. The boy had already 'judged' him worthy when he was in that Heaven of Desire. Danzo was sure that if he played his cards right he would be able to get the ear of this boy once he got in a position of power. All he needed to do now was keep the boy safe, which was why he had sent Aburame Kyou after the boy as an observer.

Aburame Kyou was perhaps his best tracker-nin. His kikai were the fastest to ever been bred into the Aburama clan. And not only that but the reach of his female kikai pheromones was astounding, the boy could literally be followed within a forty kilometer radius.

Danzo was sitting in his chair, enjoying his not so perfect strawberry tea with sugar that seemed to not have been perfectly stirred, which seemed to annoy him endlessly after coming back from heaven, when he got a kikai bug from Kyou; asking if he was allowed to interfere after Mizuki had attacked the Uchiha boy.

"Deal with him accordingly, Kyou. I will inform the Hokage." Danzo said putting down his cup of tea and shunshined away, off to the Hokage's office.

* * *

><p>Sarutobi Hiruzen had just perfected his latest stroke of genius. In front of him was a glass sphere that had the canny ability to see everything within the barriers of Konoha. It was a project he had been working on for more than a decade now but it had finally worked, sure it took more chakra then it was possibly worth but the sheer amounts of research his student would be able to do once he would come back was astounding, yes the next Icha Icha was surely going to be a masterwork.<p>

Sarutobi was about to watch what his grandson was up to when he heard someone knock on the door, "Come in" He said as he put away his glass ball.

As the door opened the Hokage could see the frame of someone who had become more of an ally lately than he had thought possible. Danzo Shimaru had almost made a one-eighty, disclosing some information that confirmed a lot of the Hokage's suspicions and that would make sure that a lot of people did not need to die.

And that all because of one boy, one vision that had changed the man in front of him so much. That had given him hope to a better future, yes it was indeed a most interesting turn in events.

"I come with grave news, Hiruzen." Danzo said with a monotonous voice. "Uchiha Haru is currently being kidnapped by school teacher Mizuki Touji." The Hokage gave Danzo a stern look as he said this.

"Where is he taking the boy?" Hiruzen asked of the one eyed man.

"More likely than not to Orochimaru, my men checked his apartment upon hearing about the kidnapping, there are clear signs that he is affiliated with him." Danzo told him. "I believe this warrants ANBU and Hunter nin.

"I am afraid so, two four men cells will be going after him." Sarutobi said while eight anbu were currently putting on their mask in the room above the office.

Sarutobi activated the silencing seals on the room. "I hope the boy won't hold this against us, first we kill his family, than he is has to fend off one teacher only to be kidnapped by another, and that all within a week… Want to see the ordeal from up close Shimaru?" He asked while showing the glass ball to the one eyed man.

* * *

><p>Kyou was not much of a fighter but he had orders to stall the silver haired man that was kidnapping one of the few remaining Uchiha's until the anbu would arrive.<p>

"Mizuki Touji, stand still, you are to be arrested for crimes committed against Konoha including but not limited to kidnapping and conspiracy." He said while spreading his bugs over the grass field they were currently standing on. "You have no place to go, surrender now." Kyou stated.

Mizuki looked at Kyou with malice, "HA, as if I'll ever be caught!" he screamed. "You will die here!" Grabbing a huge windmill shuriken and throwing it at Kyou, Mizuki decided to piggyback the Uchiha boy and darted of.

Kyou evaded the windmill shuriken and used his bugs to leech chakra off the kidnapper.

Mizuki was still running when he felt he slowed down considerably, "I will not fail at this as well!" he yelled while willing his body to go faster. Mizuki having taught several Aburame children knew how to get rid of the bugs and jumped in the water while Uchiha Haru was still on his back, and while he was losing the bugs Kyou had tagged him with he also woken up the boy on his back.

The boy on Mizuki's back was using the water to slip away from Mizuki's tight grip.

"No, no! You are coming with me!" Mizuki yelled trying to get hold of the Uchiha boy. But the boy, so Kyou saw, had used his space/time jutsu and had teleported away with a louder than was usual pop, leaving Mizuki behind, losing his balance and falling in the ice cold river.

Just two seconds later he was surrounded by anbu, and Mizuki cursed the child that had caused all of this, no wonder Menumi had wanted to kill the boy, he was an omen for bad luck.

* * *

><p>"Did the boy just use a teleportation jutsu without hand seals?" the hokage asked of Danzo with blinking eyes.<p>

"Yes, I told you he came to my home earlier this week, apparently he has a jutsu that can make the boy appear and disappear at will anywhere almost instantly." Danzo said while looking at the glass ball in front of him. "Since when did you have this device Hiruzen?" he asked of the man.

"Not that long, it is quite the useful tool, don't you agree?" Sarutobi said with an amused look on his face. "However ninja toys aside that boy was an enigma wrapped in a mystery, we should find out just what he can do and perhaps even how. You already said he had a genjutsu that he could use with his Mangekyou that held you for centuries. I am interested in this boy." Hiruzen looked at Danzo and a plan was evident in the glint of his eyes.

"What are you thinking Hiruzen?" Danzo asked of the man, they had been able to talk to each other more openly after the conversation they had had Wednesday. Danzo was glad he had taken that opportunity, not only did it lift a huge weight of his shoulders but it also made his old friend more than just an acquaintance, he could say that the man in front of him was probably the closest thing to a friend he had had in over thirty years. They had talked for almost eight hours discussing not only past actions of Danzo but also the Uchiha Massacre and to Danzo's great shame his team work with Orochimaru. Hiruzen had been more than accepting despite the anger he had shown to some portions of the conversation.

"I think you should go to the boy, and ask him to come to this office, I believe he has a jutsu exam to go through" Sarutobi said while chuckling and Danzo could not help but let loose the control he had on his lips and the hokage saw them curl up in a slight smile.

* * *

><p>Sasuke was still running away from the shadow that was chasing him, he had been running for what felt like days but could've been seconds as he had not seen the moon move even a millimeter.<p>

He was panting now and he had to stop, he was getting tired, he would just let the shadow kill him, it was okay, he was too tired to put up a fight.

* * *

><p>Harry had apparited away from the crazy teacher. "Come on! Two bloody teachers in one week trying to kill me is a bit much even for my standards." He said while looking up and cursing fate for hating him.<p>

Harry had apparited to the only place he was sure he would feel remotely safe right now, the hospital room of his brother.

Harry could see the boy was having it rough; he was sweating which probably meant that the boy was out of his coma but in a dream or something. This made Harry experience conflicting feelings, on one hand he was happy that the boy was out of the coma, on the other he felt sorry for him, knowing very well how disturbing and haunting nightmares could be.

"I could help you. All I would need to do would be to open your eye-lids and take you into my heaven." Harry looked at the boy that was lying in bed. "Is it not sad that with all my power and abilities I could take your pain away, but just because I know that you need to go through this like any normal person I can't do that for you.. What kind of brother does that make me?" Harry was now stoking the older boy's hair, as he had been doing for the last few days.

"I know it might be hard now, Sasuke, but I will help you to the best of my abilities without forcing you. I will treat you better than how I have been treated in the past, Nightmares are needed. I just hope you can forgive me once you find out just how deep my betrayal has been Sasuke. Will you be mad at me, raging, once you wake up? Will you blame me for all the dead?" Tears were now streaming down Harry's cheeks. "I have had the craziest week Sasuke, I am sure you would find it entertaining in your own silly way. I miss you foolish big brother, wake up soon Sasuke." Harry whispered in the boy's ear as he laid himself down next to the boy.

Sasuke could hear Harry's voice murmuring in the distance, it sounded so sad that Sasuke wanted to cry. But he could not, he was too tired and the shadow that had chased him was now directly behind him.

"Sa- su- ke" a raspy voice said, sending shivers down Sasuke's spine.

Sasuke closed his eyes and wished the shadow would disappear if he did not look at it. "Sas – uke" the voice managed to say a bit less raspy this time.

"Loo-k at m-e, Sas-ke" the voice pleaded with a soft raspy voice that made Sasuke curious enough to open his eyes and look at the figure that stood behind him.

Sasuke eyes were instantly locked on the figure, shaking Sasuke to his very core.

"Sasu- ke, do not look at me with disgus-t. Accep-t me."  
>"I am you after all" The voice said the last words manically.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> I am going on camp next week for five days so it might take some time for me to update again, sorry.

That being said what did you think of my tiny cliffhanger?


	14. In which we meet part two

**AN: **I am so sorry for taking more than a month to upload this chapter. But life has been crazy. I've been sick for more than a week, have been to schoolcamp, and writing this chapters last few scenes seemed to take forever. I however hope you guys will like this chapter as much as I do.. It is quite the revealing chapter so read carefully.

Thanks for all the readers who reviewed last chapter it truly helped me get through some of the hardships i've had while writing this.

Chapter is not yet Beta'd by Xhexia but as always I will upload the BETA'd version as soon as it is in.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 13: In which we meet… part two<strong>

In the darkness that was lit only by a moon without light, Sasuke saw the one person he truly feared. It was a boy that was standing in front of him. The boy had mid length raven black hair and dull dark almost slit eyes, the boy had pasty almost sickly white skin and an unnatural malicious grin plastered on his face.

Standing in front of Sasuke was not a total stranger but someone he knew very well, himself. It looked like another version of him. A version he did not particularly prefer. Yet it felt like that boy, that was standing in front of him was not him at all.

"Shh, don't be scared. I am just here to let you bask in the glory of your true self, the self you refuse to be or see." The other Sasuke said with a raspy voice.

"You're not real, go away!" Sasuke managed to say without much conviction. Sasuke could see the grin on the fake Sasuke widen. "This is just a nightmare. Go away!"

"I am more real than this entire world you've made up in your head. I am a part of you, Sasuke. Whether you like it or not." The boy said as he got closer to Sasuke.

"We have a problem Sasuke. You see, I am you and thus you are me. But you are weak, and I am tired of being weak! You are a weak gullible child that needs to grow up." the pasty white boy spat, still getting closer to Sasuke's face. "We could be so much more than we are now. We could be great, we could be true avengers! All we need to do is get those same eyes as Itachi, those eyes that have power that can see all that is."

"No! No! No! I am not weak, stop lying!.. Go away!" Sasuke screamed almost in frenzy, but he knew those words were true; they felt like knives cutting into his flesh, every new word cutting deeper into his skin than the last one. But true words none the less.

"The only one lying here is you, Sasuke. You're the one who is literally lying to yourself." The boy said while his grin turned into a snarl, tongue licking his lips. "You believe the kind words, the kind lies that your brothers tell you. But the truth is you are not strong Sasuke. You are weak! And I will not go away until you are strong enough in here to accept that! "The boy's thundering raspy voice said while poking Sasuke on his forehead.

"Your brothers pity you Sasuke; you have seen it in their eyes. They know you are weak, so unlike them. They are geniuses, prodigies." the boy said calming down, while Sasuke felt tears well up in his eyes, ready to fall to the ground.

"You could be so strong, you could be stronger than any of them, but yet you settle for less than perfection, you settle for less than you are worth!" The boy was now hugging Sasuke who in turn was crying silently. "I need you to be stronger Sasuke, how could you ever get revenge for our loss if you stay a weak little boy?"

"I… I don't know." Sasuke muttered, freeing himself from the boy's tight grip.

"We need power, Sasuke. Power to make them all pay for what we went through. Power to destroy not only Itachi but also Harry and then, then we will have our revenge!"

"Destroy Harry?" Sasuke asked in shock. "But he's our little brother, he deserves revenge as well, why should I destroy him?"

"Have you not listened to what he has been saying while you were asleep?" the boy asked of Sasuke. "Have you not heard how Harry knew Itachi was going to kill everybody? How Harry agreed with Itachi? Harry is just as guilty as Itachi, Sasuke. He needs to die as well… But you need to get stronger first, let him teach you! But do not believe his lies, stop being a fool!" At hearing this Sasuke's face shot up with widened eyes. "Take revenge for both of us Sasuke! Rise to heights unknown to others!"

"But… But why would they do that? I don't believe you! They love me it must have been a mistake an accident!" Sasuke almost pleaded.

"Sasuke, I am you. I know you know deep down inside that your brothers love you as much as they love the clan, and they killed the clan. The only one your brothers love more than themselves is power!" the boy said trying to convince Sasuke. "Can you not see that you deserve so much more than this Sasuke? Can you not see that you are better than those two? They killed their own family and they only left you alive because they pity you!" the boy said in disgust. "We don't need pity! We are strong, we deserve better!"

The boys' words struck Sasuke like lightning. "But even if that was true, they are so strong, even father was not as strong as them! They are prodigies; they are both so much stronger than I am! What could I do against them?" Sasuke asked pleadingly, almost desperate to know the answer.

The other boy was licking his lips smiling "For now, you can't do anything." After letting those words sink in he continued: "You should wait and train, take every chance you get to get stronger. And when you are sure you can beat them, you can show them how wrong they were in killing your family. To kill your loved ones. To humiliate you like that… to humiliate us!" the boy spat out, while a white hot rage welling up inside Sasuke.

"Get revenge for the both of us and our life, your life would be so much better! You know this, I am you and you are me after all. All you are doing now is debating with yourself, one part of you wants to remain a weak pawn and feel safe knowing you do not have to do anything. And the other part of you, the other part wants to gain control. The other part wants to be in control of his own life, the only problem is, is that you need to decide which course of action you will take."

The boy took a step back and held up two hands, raising his left hand he said with a look of disgust on his face; "Will you stay weak?" dropping his hand and raising the other one with a smirk "Or will you get stronger than any of them."

Sasuke, in his maelstrom of feelings closed his eyes, clenched his fists and after a few moments stood up straight with open eyes ablaze. "I will take our revenge on those that hurt us, I will kill them both! I will take hold of the reigns of my life."

The boy looked at Sasuke with a smug look plastered on his face. "Very good Sasuke-kun!" the boy said licking his lips and chuckling with a low voice. "But now it is time to wake up and we will see each other sooner or later Sasuke-kun."

* * *

><p>Harry could not fall asleep. He had his eyes trained on the door. Sasuke, who was lying next to him was still moving a lot and sweating profusely. Harry could see the door slowly open. It would most likely be a nurse that came to check upon Sasuke.<p>

"I knew I would be able to find you here Harry-san. Would you mind coming with me? The hokage wants to see you finally take that test." A voice said with mild amusement in his voice.

Harry looked at the- man- who- was- obviously- not- a- nurse. "Sure." Harry responded.

This was a perfect turn of events for Harry; he would have his test taken by the Hokage himself! The man would surely see how strong Harry had become and thus he would be able to advance faster in the ninja ranks! Perhaps people trying to kill him actually had positive side-effects in this world.

Harry silently followed the man, neither of them noticing a carefully hidden shadowy figure that was still in the room.

And as the door closed the shadow dashed out of the window and Sasuke's eyes flashed open, finally awake.

* * *

><p>Sarutobi was standing near the window; he was waiting for Shimura and the Uchiha boy to arrive while watching the beautiful sunset gracing the horizon. Sarutobi never before in his life had to resort to testing an academy student himself. But the circumstances required him to do it.<p>

Well perhaps require was too big of a word, he could always make young Iruka do it. But if he was entirely honest with himself, this Uchiha boy intrigued him too much not to see the boy in person taking the test.

It was not often that a true genius was born into Konoha, but those that were, usually finished the academy around the age of six; Uchiha Haru was only three years old, almost four. Being that young made him the youngest child ever to be promoted to genin. And already the boy carried himself like an adult, the boy reminded him of his old student Orochimaru. That boy was too smart and too grown up way too young as well. Hopefully this boy would not end up making the same selfish mistakes as his old student once had.

Thinking about his former student made him look at the file that was now prominently lying on his desk, It wasn't the file itself that was interesting. It was the same sort of paper every file in his office had, the same random ten numbers on it were nothing special either but what was written on the paper in the file was what made the Hokage think of almost forgotten times. Apparently Orochimaru was part of an organization called Akatsuki, an organization filled with S-ranked missing-nin, that was all Itachi had send Jiriaya. However for Hiruzen it was enough to know that trouble was slowly nearing the still peaceful horizon.

The hokage was pulled out of his thoughts as he heard footsteps coming closer. So he decided to sit down in the wooden chair behind his desk, to properly welcome his next guests. As he sat down and put the file that was occupying his mind earlier away the footsteps stopped and he heard a knock: "Come in."

As the door opened Hiruzen could clearly see the young Uchiha boy, the boy looked tired even more so than when he had last visited this office. 'I guess even prodigal Uchiha's need their peace of mind.' Hiruzen thought.

"Please take a seat we have a lot of things to do, not the least of importance your genin jutsu exam!" he said amicably to the boy, pasting a smile on his face and giving him his best grandfatherly impression. "But let's talk a bit about what happened today first." At seeing the boy nod he pressed on. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I am doing fine, sir." The boy responded curtly.

"Can you give us any more insight into what happened earlier today, Haru?" He asked hoping the boy could give him any more insight.

"Mizuki-sensei wanted to… He wanted to kidnap me. He, he told me we were going to take the exam on a specially prepared training ground so I followed him and then he knocked me out." As the boy told him this he could see that the child was clearly bothered by being knocked out, the clenching fists were a clear sign that he had felt powerless, perhaps even careless if his interpretation ofthe downcast eyes was correct.

"When I woke up again we were in the water or somewhere wet and I could feel that he was holding on to me tightly. But all I knew was that I needed to get away, after a short while I could feel myself slipping out of his grip and then I was in the hospital next to Sasuke." The boy was looking at him with eyes that were miles away as if he was reliving the experience second by second. "My wrists still hurt because he held on to them so tightly…" the boy said while gently stroking his left wrist.

"I guess you would feel relieved to know that our Anbu have captured Mizuki and that he is now in confinement." Sarutobi said hoping to sooth the troubled child. Who in turn had looked up to him and locked his eyes on his.

"Why did he want to kidnap me?" the boy asked of him in an inquisitive tone that almost sounded commanding. Sarutobi could see that Danzo eye widened slightly at hearing this come out of the Uchiha prodigy, was it the same kind of tone he had used when talking to Danzo?

Sarutobi folded his hands and leaned forward; "We're not sure yet, but if we find out you will be informed." He told the boy.

"You're not telling me the truth, my Hokage. Please do not treat me like a foolish child, even though I may look the part." the boy said in a whisper. "Tell me truthfully, is Mizuki a spy of one of the three legendary sannin, Orochimaru or am I mistaken. Answer me that, for I am not a child that needs to be treated like a porcelain vase." The boy asked of him.

Sarutobi looked at Shimura and he could see that while Danzo was also taken aback he also looked at the boy as if impressed. "Uchiha Harry, the Hokage cannot say anything concerning this investigation to anyone, not even you, while it is ongoing. You should know that." Danzo said while keeping his one visible eye trained on the boy. "Your inquisitive nature should not get the best of you Harry; you will find that with patience you will get much further in this village, consider that my first lesson."

Hearing that the boy stopped staring at the hokage and turned his now curious gaze towards the one eyed man. After a few seconds the boy sighed, looked back at the Hokage:" I am sorry Hokage-sama. This has been a most testing week for me and I find myself slightly agitated and thus inclined to be more direct."

"I can understand that, care to enlighten me about how you now know it was Orochimaru, while you previously did not disclose that information?" Sarutobi asked of the boy. 'I wonder how you will talk yourself out of that one, Uchiha Haru. You truly are something special…' he thought to himself.

The boy sitting in front of him suddenly gained a small smile "Hokage, we are going to test my jutsu's next, correct?" he asked of him after which Sarutobi nodded. "I will show you how I know about certain things when we reach the jutsu's you will tell no soul about."

"Yes, but that does not answer my question." Sarutobi said while hardening his expression, ready to demand an answer out of the boy.

"I promise, sir, everything that you have been so eager to find out about me will be, somewhat, explained." The smile on Haru's face widened. "The same goes for you Danzo, if you are coming with us that is." At this the boy stood up. "Where will the test take place sir?" he asked.

* * *

><p>Standing on training ground seven Danzo realized he was not a man that was easily impressed. This was why he was now lazily looking at the Uchiha boy who was systematically showing off his lower ranked jutsu's, the two ANBU teams that were hiding at the edges of the training field were more interesting than this boy currently was. If Danzo was honest it was impressive for a boy of that age to be capable of such feats but he had seen the boy do things that were of a whole different level than these petty tricks, creating your own universe was not a small feat after all.<p>

It was because of that reason alone that he was still watching the boy perfectly performing his ninja tricks. He had already noticed that the boy was molding his chakra perfectly not wasting even the slightest bit.

The boy was now starting on his bunshin. It was truly a sight to behold. The clones were perfect even his own trained eye could not see anything that could give away the fact that he was looking at a clone. And the amount of different clones was truly something to be excited about. The boy was apparently capable of making clones in all the elements even the coveted shadow clone!

Danzo could see that Sarutobi was impressed; the man had a smile on his face and was nodding his head in improvement. "How many shadow clones can you make at one time, Uchiha-san?" Sarutobi asked after seeing another perfect clone.

The boy looked up at the hokage and Danzo could see that the boy was about to lie. "Tell him the truth Harry, or better, show us. The more shadow clones you can make the higher your score will be" Danzo said knowing that the boy wanted to prove his worth.

Knowing that the boy was eager to show his skills for the same reason he wanted to see the boy excel. To be truly acknowledged by the Third Hokage himself.

* * *

><p>Harry's mind was working overtime trying to decide whether or not he should show his full capacity. On one hand he needed to make a statement and show these two men that he was a capable ninja and that he would eventually be strong enough to carry the title of Hokage, but he needed to make sure they would not feel threatened by him too much; assassination was not something these people weren't familiar with after all.<p>

"How many clones do I have to make for a perfect score on this jutsu, sir?" Harry asked trying to turn the tables on the man.

However it was not Danzo that responded but the Hokage. "I will award you one extra credit for each set of three perfectly made clones; I believe that should be fair."

Harry was calculating in his head he needed to get at least two hundred twenty-eight points in total with a perfect score on both his written tests and normal jutsu test he had gotten a total of one hundred and fifty points so he needed at least seventy seven points in total and with all the lower ranked jutsu's he had performed thus far he had gained eighteen credits.

"Do you promise not to feel threatened by the amount of clones? I can only make this many because I have found a way to balance my chakra perfectly..." Harry said trying to ease the two men into what was about to come.

"Worry not Uchiha-san, I have seen the first hokage in his prime when he invented this jutsu. He could make a total of a hundred clones without breaking a sweat." Sarutobi said with pride in his voice.

At hearing that Harry nodded and made the seal for the shadow clone, focused his chakra balancing it perfectly and pushed out all of his chakra making as many clones as he possibly could while still being capable of standing up.

* * *

><p>Sarutobi wondered just how many shadow clones the boy could make, what he had seen thus far while exceptional for an almost four year old boy was not all that special for a prodigal genin. Sure the different bunshin were a nice trick and they were perfectly made but it was not the kind of thing he was hoping to witness while observing the boy.<p>

However as the sight of the training field around him was suddenly exchanged with a humongous cloud of smoke Sarutobi could feel the excitement in his bones, yes, this was why he was testing the boy himself.

Slowly the smoke started to clear and he was greeted by a sea of people existing of the same person. "How truly extraordinary Uchiha-san!" he said while trying to count the amount of clones. After failing to count the amount of clones he decided to just ask the boy.

"How many are there exactly, Uchiha-san?"

"I have made a total of ninety-nine clones, sir." The boy said panting slightly. "I will disperse them in sets of six, after which I would like to have a break as I am feeling rather spent about now." Sitting down the Uchiha boy asked curiously; "You don't happen to have any treacle tart around would you?"

Sarutobi looked at the boy in amazement. 'Such control over his chakra was truly a sign of a once in a lifetime genius. To think Konoha would have the privilege of being the home to another genius' he thought to himself. It was something that made him feel proud of Konoha, the strongest hidden village. "I do not believe there is any treacle tart around here." He told the boy.

* * *

><p>After having had a short while to recuperate Harry was done with dispelling his clones and he could feel the powerful waves of his chakra flowing back in his body. It felt almost reassuring to know that all that chakra came back to him but just as balanced out as before.<p>

Harry knew that this test had gotten far more complicated than just the normal exam, the fact that not only the Hokage was present but also the illustrious root-leader were clear indications that something bigger than just his exam was going on.  
>And Harry knew he had to take this chance to showcase his abilities to these influential people and get out of it better than how he went in it.<p>

His goals were too important to hold back now, if he wanted peace for not only himself but his... his family as well he needed to take every opportunity and hold to them tightly.

Deciding that he had rested enough Harry stood up "I am ready to go sirs." He said giving them both a toothed grin.

After a while they were all standing next to the sparring pole and Harry knew he had to take out the big guns now. "I will show you one of my most coveted secrets in the following hour, please keep those secrets with you." Harry asked of the two men, which in turn nodded their head.

"Uchiha-san as a ninja of Konoha, which I can assure you you will become after completing this exam, your jutsu's will not be shared with anyone who isn't of Konoha's upper ranks." The hokage said with an authoritative tone.

Nodding his head Harry closed his eyes and activated his sharingan. "The Uchiha trademark, three tomoed sharingan. These eyes are strong and allow me to not only have clarified vision but also allow me to see the flow of chakra, copy jutsu's and predict muscle movement."

"These eyes however dot not define me and are not my most powerful asset. For my best jutsu's these eyes are not needed." Harry said deactivating his sharingan and giving both men a mischievous smile. "Please take hold of my hands and I will show you something not even the fourth hokage was capable of, I promise it won't harm you."

Both men after a few moments took hold of one of Harry's outstretched hands and with a big grin on Harry's face they were gone with a soft pop resounding on the open field leaving nothing behind but the two anbu teams who were now looking franticly around trying to find the Hokage..

* * *

><p>Danzo grabbed hold of the boy's hand and he knew what was to come would be something extraordinary, and if Danzo was half as good informed as he thought he was, he had an idea what was about to happen.<p>

So when all of the sudden he saw the boy grinning he felt an impeding sense of doom.  
>At once the world around him was no more than strings of black and stretched colors he could feel his insides being pushed together, his eyes being pulled back into his head, his eardrums being pushed into his skull his limbs feeling as if the were being pushed through a rubber ring that was trying to suffocate him.<p>

For a quarter of a second Danzo was frightened, afraid for his life, his whole being. But there was something that reassured him, he could feel that he was still tightly holding on to the Uchiha boy, still holding on to reality.

A moment later he could feel that he wasn't being stretched and pulled together anymore. His stomach felt like it was about to protest and throw up but Danzo took back control of his senses and held them in an iron fist of calmness.

"That was a most interesting experience." He could hear Hiruzen say. At hearing the voice of his hokage he started to realize that he wasn't at the training grounds anymore.

"I am surprised the both of you did not throw up… kind of a letdown actually but being a ninja of your caliber, I shouldn't have set such low expectations." He could hear the Uchiha boy say.

"I believe you should tell us what you just did." He said in return, ignoring what the boy had said earlier. "And why we are at the valley of the end?"

* * *

><p>"We are here, sir, because at the training ground we were at did not have enough privacy, those twelve ANBU did not need to see what I am capable of at the moment, beside I like the view of my ancestor looking out for me." Harry said. "I am sure, Hokage-sama that you remember the day you visited the Uchiha district after the big explosion, right?"<p>

The hokage nodded gravely "Yes, yes I do. It was a most intriguing sealing accident your father…"pausing the eyes of the old man widened slightly and an expression of understanding dawned on his face. "So it was not a sealing accident after all, was it?" he asked.

Harry looked at the old man and simply nodded. After a few seconds of uneasiness Harry continued "It was my first jutsu, and ever since that day I have noticed I can do.. Extraordinary things with chakra. Things like creating a huge fire or teleporting the three of us is not that difficult for me." Looking down Harry awaited the hokage's response.

"Well, I guess we truly will see some interesting jutsu's while taking your exam now, won't we young Uchiha?" The Hokage said.

Harry could feel that his plan had succeeded, he had this man under his thumb, he had this man, the most powerful and influential person in the entire village on his side. "You will." He said.

"Let's get all this talking done so we can actually start examining the boy.." Danzo spat out. "I don't have time for all this chit chat."

"Sir, am I correct in assuming it was you who tried to teach me earlier today that patience was a virtue one should not take lightly?" Harry asked rhetorically giving the man a taste of his own medicine.

"Alright, I guess it is time I show you how a true Uchiha handles his fire." Harry said taking a few steps back, knowing that he would have to live up to the expectations he had just created.

Inhaling, Harry collected a portion of his chakra, moving his hands at speeds that were unprecedented by one so young. "Goukakyuu no jutsu" and he exhaled, setting the world a fire with his chakra knowing that every living thing that was caught in those flames would perish, turn to ash. But it was not enough, he needed to impress these two men. He needed to make sure that these two men would see him as a ninja worth investing in.

Pumping more chakra into his jutsu Harry could only see flames and only feel heat.

* * *

><p>Danzo was, at seeing the huge fire the boy was making with this mere c-ranked jutsu, finally seeing what he came for. The true prodigious prowess of Uchiha Haru.<p>

To make a Goukayuu that big and strong the boy must have perfect chakra control and huge chakra supplies. But most of all the boy must be nearing desperation for acknowledgement, to truly give it his all.

Yes it really was a magnificent sight to behold. And the best thing about it was that the boy, just as his elder brother Itachi was as loyal as a puppy to Konoha, such a strong ninja would surely make a good hokage.

The fire had been raging for five seconds already but the boy in front of him was not showing any signs of stopping, he actually seemed to be increasing the intensity of the flames he was producing.  
>The size and heat increasing by the second. Danzo could feel his skin starting to react to the heat the boy was making. Sweat pouring down his face.<p>

The fire seemed to get even bigger, the bright flames in stark contrast to the deep blue night sky. The boy seemed to be so caught up in his concentration he did not notice he was almost burning the entire valley to ash if he did not stop. Danzo looked at Hiruzen who nodded and so he walked towards the boy and laid his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Stop the jutsu." He said with a low voice hoping the boy could still hear him.

At once the boy stopped breathing out fire and blinked at the sight in front of him. "I was not done yet, I can go further." The boy said slightly agitated that he was stopped and not seeming to care that the area was blackened by scorch marks and that huge fires were still burning away trees and plants.

Hiding his surprise Danzo decided that he would double his efforts in getting this child to become hokage; such talent should not go to waste. The boy had already shown that he was capable of playing the political game; it was hard to believe he was but a child, all the boy needed was experience and a helping hand, his helping hand. "I am sure you could, but we have seen enough. Besides the valley is a historic sight and thus cannot be allowed to be destroyed merely because you want to show us your jutsu."

The boy sighed and rubbed his neck. "I guess you are right about that, but I needed those flames for my next jutsu." At hearing this Danzo gave Hiruzen a sharp glance wondering if his old friend had heard the same implication as he just had.

"What would be your next jutsu then?" Sarutobi asked the boy.

The boy flashed a small grin and stretched his fingers. "Well you see flames are useful for my next jutsu because it gives it purpose. The flames should be gone once I'm done."

Could the boy be talking about suiton jutsu? But that meant he not only could use fire jutsu's on this level but also water... That was truly unsuspected. "Well, I would say use it quickly or there will be nothing left of this valley."

"Of course." The boy responded curtly. "This jutsu was one of the first ones I found while reading about the Nidaime Hokage. He truly had some fascinating ideas."

* * *

><p>Harry knew that this jutsu would baffle the two ninja's, a jutsu that has not been seen since the first great ninja war. Concentrating on making the huge wild fires that represented his chakra calmer more water-like Harry drenched the area around him with his chakra, converting it into water. Not noticing the shocked faces on the two ninja behind him Harry cried out the jutsu's name "Suishoha" suddenly the water that was forming all around Harry in a typhoon started to crash down on the fires that were systematically put out by the huge flood.<p>

Feeling proud of his accomplishment Harry turned around to face the two man only to find them looking at him in a stupor. "To think.. To think you would have a high water affinity not unlike Tobirama! And in such conditions as well…" the hokage stuttered out.

"Yes, it truly shows just how remarkable you are, Uchiha Harry." Danzo said not showing any emotions other than slight awe. "But this is not the extent of your powers, activate your Mangekyou! Show us… the Heaven of desire. Show us 'Tengoku no Yokubou'" Danzo said looking at Harry with almost pleading eyes.

Harry looked down to a pebble on the ground, a feeling of immense guilt making itself aware. Knowing that the proud man in front of him was almost crumbling, begging and setting aside that pride that made this man who he was, just to feel that heaven again. Just to have some peace of mind in Harry's jutsu. "I am sorry Danzo" Harry said. "I will not take you there again, Danzo. To have experienced such a world once has had a huge impacts on you. I am not sure you could get yourself to leave a second time." Harry told the man. The jutsu that gave the person it was cast upon the perfect world, so Harry thought, was addictive. The pleading and twitching eyes of Danzo confirmed his suspicions.

"I can however, take you there, hokage-sama."Harry said with a glancing to the side. Visiting once should not be harmfull at all, you might actually enjoy it."

Using the Mangekyou should damage his eyes, Harry knew this but after using it once on Danzo he had not noticed any damage to his eyes, so it was most likely not as damaging as some of the other techniques those eyes possessed.

"I believe I will pass that opportunity. Heaven should not be entered before one has died." The hokage said sorrow apparent in his eyes.

"It is okay you know, it is not really heaven, it is my heaven a different dimension all together. Please do not think you are unworthy to enter such a place sir." Harry told the man, knowing that the only reason the man did not want to experience the jutsu was because he blamed himself for too many things to think himself worthy of such a place. "You could see it as a small vacation, how does it sound sir? Fifty years of relaxation and pure bliss in just a second."

"I will pass this opportunity, I will take a vacation once I am retired, which most likely will never happen." The hokage said chuckling slightly.

"I understand sir." Harry said gravely. "But how will I get points for a jutsu I have not performed? It is easily one of my strongest jutsu's sir, I believe it might even be S-ranked."

"That is easily solved, I have been told how your jutsu works by someone who experienced it first hand, you will receive the points accordingly, which means that with submitting this jutsu, you will have gotten the maximum amount of points that can be awarded to a student during this part of the exam."

At hearing that Harry looked quizzically at the Hokage. "I was not aware there was a limit to how many points one could get sir… What is my score?"

"Ah, well that of course is a surprise, you will find that out just like every other student tomorrow morning when you go to the academy." The hokage said with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Sir, before we started this exam I promised you to show you how I knew Orochimaru was behind my kidnapping." Harry said, taking back control of the conversation again. "I will show you my most coveted skill; it is something that others have called 'passing judgment'!" Harry said those last words in looking directly into the Hokage's eyes.

"My score, sir, is two hundred and fifty." Harry said while pouting. "Well, it is a bit disappointing but I guess it still makes me the best student ever…"

"You can read thoughts!" the Hokage said taking a step back while Danzo started to get a calculated smile on his face.

"Not exactly reading sir, the mind is not a book with an index through which I can navigate. It is much more complex than that. I can merely glance at your foremost feelings and thoughts. If I were to dig deeper than that, it would require a lot more concentration from my part." Harry explained to the Hokage, giving him a bit more insight and easing him.

"From now on you are prohibited from using that technique on anyone who is from Konoha unless given explicit orders, is that understood!" the hokage said with an authoritative voice as if declaring a decree.

"Of course Hokage-sama." Harry said in a humble tone. It was a tricky decision he had made. The hokage could have responded to this in a whole different way, locking him up or worse. But the Hokage he got to know was a kind man that wanted to see the best in people, even if that meant allowing Harry to walk around with abilities that were not fully comprehensible.

"Uchiha-san, I can congratulate you on your passing the exams. You are now a true shinobi of Konoha." The hokage said at which Harry granted him the biggest smile of that day.

"I know you will treat your position with the utmost respect, may the will of fire burn brightly and guide you through this world of darkness." The man said wisely.

"The will of fire… I will carry it within me, nurturing those flames, never letting it cast shadows on those that need the light and warmth." Harry said in return hoping the man understood what he tried to convey.

Coughing and ending the peaceful moment Danzo asked "Can you take us back to the Hokage's office, Uchiha Harry, hopefully the second trip will be more comfortable, that is if you can still teleport us three after performing those jutsu's and draining your chakra?"

"Sir, I can only take the Hokage with me, I am so sorry for the inconvenience." Harry said laughing and taking the hand of the Hokage and disappearing with a small pop.

It was at that moment in time that Danzo truly felt left behind. Only to hear a pop behind him and disappearing as well.

* * *

><p>Just outside of the barely moon-lit outer walls of Konoha a grey haired teenage boy could be seen walking lazily. The boy looked rather plain and the only noticeable things about him were the round illuminated glasses that were seated on his nose and the ease in which the boy walked through the forest with his eyes nearly closed.<p>

The boy was actually walking rather comfortably with his hands in his pockets but if one was to look closely at his eyes you could see that the boy was counting the trees.

The boy, seemingly at random, decided to sit down and rest at a huge oak tree that seemed to obscure the boy even more, hiding him in the shadows. After not too long a small white snake slithered down the tree and swallowed the scroll, which the grey haired teenage boy had laid beside him, whole. The boy stood up after seeing the scroll disappearing inside the snake and walked back to the village, a smirk appearing on his face.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: About Harry revealing some of his biggest secrets:<strong>

Harry doesn't quite know just how treaturous the shinobi world is, even though he has seen a glimpse of it with the massacre and history lessons. Some may consider it a plothole that Harry decided to showcase his legilimency and teleporting.  
>But I can't consider it a plothole. More of a difference in approach. To be honest I don't really agree with Harry either.. but well .. he had made up his mind and i could do nothing to stop him,we all know how stubborn he can get..<p>

**MANGA SPOILER ALERT!**

WOW, have you guys read the last few manga chapters.. it is like Kishimoto just woke up after a year and a half of sleeping. It really are some epic major events. I'm rooting for Tsunade BTW, do you guys think she'll live? because I think she will just heal the wounded as she always does.. it still is not her moment to shine.


	15. Look at me, I am a real ninja!

**AN: **It did not take another month! woohoo.

First I Would like to thank the amazing reviewers!

This chapter is the first chapter in which Harry will fight someone! so be ready for it. Also one tip my brother wants to give you is to play the song "Sadness and Sorrow" while reading the first part of this chapter.

without further ado I present to you:"

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 14: Look at me, I am a real ninja!<strong>

Harry was walking through the abandoned streets of Konoha; the exam he had taken earlier that night was still on his mind. Having had time to reflect on what happened while walking home Harry realized that since the death of his Uchiha parents he had not been acting as rationally as he thought he had been. He had showed people that he was capable of apparation and legilimency.

"I have revealed so much information to these two men, what if I misread their personalities?" Harry asked in a whisper looking up to the moon that was illuminating the street around him. Step by step Harry realized more and more that he really needed to downplay his role in this world. For now he was not the wise wizard that could use his influence and everyone turned to for advise. For now he could not help everyone he knew, no he was a three year old child.

Three years old… well that would not be for long. Tomorrow was his birthday. His first birthday in this world without his parents being there to celebrate it with him. Without either brother to eat cake with.

With moistly eyes Harry fastened his walk.

'I have only been here for three years and already my life is screwed up', Harry thought to himself. 'My parents and entire family killed by my own brother.'

As the first tear fell on the ground Harry started to run, trying to outrun the feeling of immense sadness and sorrow. He could have fixed everything; he could have prevented all of this from happening, if only he forced his father to see how wrong he was, if only he had used his powers to manipulate the Uchiha Elders. Harry knew he was capable of those feats yet he had done nothing but sit by idly, letting his oldest brother clean up the mess he had helped create by apathy.

Knowing he could have prevented all of the deaths, all of the pain. It sickened Harry. What good am I if I cannot even safe my family.

Running through the open gates that welcomed him into the Uchiha District Harry felt his chest tighten; he remembered the coppery smell of blood that had welcomed him that day. He remembered the countless bodies that had lain on these streets with looks of horror engraved on their faces.

And he could have stopped it all from happening. He had the power but did nothing and why? Because it was not his place to decide for people in this world? Because he did not want to reveal himself too much? Because he was a coward?

Harry abruptly stopped running once he saw the front door of his house, his home. The same home that had welcomed him into this world, the same home that had housed him, kept him warm and had protected him from the seasons.

The home of his parents.

Slowly opening the door harry could hear the nostalgic creaking sound it had always made, his mother had asked his father to fix that so many times, and his father would always say that he would oil it in the weekend, but he never did. Tears were now freely escaping his eyes, streaming down his cheeks Harry did not even bother to wipe them away. His thoughts and doubts keeping him occupied.

Walking to his room, leaving behind a trail of tears Harry could feel his tiredness making itself known. The mirror that his mother had bought for him was standing prominently in his bedroom. It actually looked a bit like the Mirror of Erised, it made Harry wonder what he would see in it now.

Perhaps he would see all his loved ones, his family and old friends. Perhaps he would see a world of peace, that was what he truly wanted, was it not? Was that not why he even allowed the massacre to take place?

Harry walked towards the mirror and looked at himself. He could see his eyes were red and puffy, and his cheeks were wet. "You really screwed up Harry." He said to the boy in the mirror reaching out with his hand as to slowly caress his image. But anger started to push all other feelings away, the sadness and sorrow made way for pure sickening hatred for himself. "Have you learned nothing after all these years?' Harry asked with a raised voice. "Could you only stand by and comfort your brother? You are a coward, a stupid bloody coward!" Harry screamed, punching his own reflection that had looked so full of rage, the mirror shattered, falling into a thousand pieces.

Harry could hear the clock downstairs striking midnight, the sound somehow calming him down. It was his birthday, and what a happy day it was. Harry had lost it all. Who did he have beside his family? He did not really have friends; the children at school were just associates, people he hardly knew.  
>All he had were a thousand reflections that were looking at him in disgust; a thousand Harry's that blamed him for the death of the Uchiha clan. That blamed him for ruining the life of both his brothers.<p>

"Happy birthday, Harry." he said to himself collecting the shards of mirror while blood was dripping from his right hand to the ground.

Falling asleep that night seemed to take forever, Harry's mind was racing; perhaps he should take it slow for the time that was coming. Perhaps taking it easy would help him to come to peace with his actions and decisions.

* * *

><p>In a hospital bed laid a boy, raven black hair obstructed the sight of his face. The boy had his eyes closed but was far from sleeping.<p>

The boy, Sasuke, had been told by the nurses that had been in a coma. But Sasuke already knew that. The nurses had also told him that his little brother had been visiting regularly, also something that Sasuke had already been aware of.  
>According to the nurses Harry, or as Sasuke had decided to name him in his head; "The- boy- that- lived- to- remind- him- his- family- had- been- killed- by- his- brothers" would be visiting in exactly two minutes, which gave Sasuke enough time to drive himself mad.<p>

In two minutes his sorry excuse of a younger brother would happily walk into the room acting as if he was innocent, a victim while he had actually been a mastermind behind the massacre that had taken place. The only person Sasuke could possibly felt more disgusted by or hated more was his other brother.

What happened to the promise they had all made to take care of each other? What gave them the right to take away his loved ones, his family.. His mother…

Sasuke wanted to scream but the door started to slid open, meaning that someone was coming in, probably Harry… Could he stay calm? Should he stay calm while that betraying piece of dung had been responsible for all those murders?

"Sasuke! You are awake; you have no idea how good it is to finally see you awake!" The- boy- that- lived- to- remind- him- his- family- had- been- killed- by- his- brothers said to him with a cheerfulness that made his stomach turn. He wanted to punch the boy, to hit him so hard he would feel the same pain as he was feeling.

"Hnn, it is good to see you as well Harry." He said successfully masking all his feelings, hiding them away. He had a plan, he would act like he did not know what had really happened, and he would get stronger, get stronger and get revenge for all the dead…

* * *

><p>A lone boy, with long sleek dark brown hair was looking at the announcement paper of the genin exams of this year's graduates. The list was practically the same as it was every year. A lot of mediocre results and a few results were hardly worth looking at at all. But this year there was something special about the list. At the very top one name was listed that stood out of place. The name was written with golden letters meaning that this student had broken a record of some kind and when the lone brown haired boy saw the score his eyes widened.<p>

'A perfect score on all exams!' the boy thought shocked.

'If I could defeat this guy perhaps it will prove that the true power of my clan lies not with the main branch…' the boy's mind was racing. 'I should formally challenge this Uchiha Haru.' And with that thought edged in his mind the boy confidently walked outside, waiting for his opponent to be bested by him.

* * *

><p>After visiting Sasuke, who had to stay in the hospital for a few days of observation, Harry walked to the academy. Today the new teams would be announced. But Harry could not really think about that.<p>

Talking to Sasuke had been heart wrenching. He had wanted to tell his brother the truth, the whole truth. But he could not, as soon as he had walked in to the room and had seen the stone-cold eyes that were so unlike Sasuke's normal kind and joy filled eyes he could not hurt the boy any more than he already had. And so he had not spoken a word about the whole incident. He had kept his secrets hoping that one day, when Sasuke was old enough to truly understand he could tell him the true story about Itachi and that night.

Harry decided to push back all his feelings and just get on with the day. This was a day that would decide how the next few years of his life were going to be. Today he would be assigned a team consisting of a jounin, two other genin and him. Harry wondered what kind of team the hokage would put him in, perhaps a strike team or a reconnaissance team or something different.

"Are you Uchiha Haru?" Harry suddenly heard a voice ask. Turning around to see who spoke to him he could see it was a boy with long dark hair.

"Yes, that is my name. But please call me Harry." Harry answered. He knew this boy, he was also a student at the ninja academy and if what he had heard was true this boy could be considered a genius.

"My name is Hyuuga Neji, I challenge you to a fight. From one top student to the other." The boy said while staring Harry directly into the eyes, surprising Harry. Slowly the children that were on the playing field started to inch closer to the two boys after hearing the official challenge.

Harry could see the boy was very serious in his request but he did not have time to spar with this Hyuuga kid. "I am very sorry, but at the moment I am rather occupied. Perhaps we will be able to spar at another time." Harry said and turned around ready to walk away.

"I did not ask you to spar with me! I challenged you to a fight; you cannot refuse a challenge and walk away with your honor intact. Have you not learned proper etiquette?" The boy said pompously.

Harry started to get irritated, why did the boy persist like that, first challenging him out of the blue and now not even taking a no for an answer without getting all snobby. Harry turned back around "I said no." Harry could hear the children around them gasp and one girl behind him said just loud enough for Harry to hear "Can you believe that! So arrogant to just ignore the Hyuuga like he means nothing!"

"I challenged you to a fight; if you do not accept you will tarnish the little bit of honor your family has left." The boy said with a smirk.

Harry's anger flared, how dare they talk like that? "I accept!" Harry said with determination. "Any conditions or rules you want to enact?"

"No Killing. We fight until someone is knocked out or gives up." Neji said with a victorious smile.

"You know, you will lose this fight. Fate has already decided the outcome of this battle and you stand no chance to my overwhelming power, Byakugan!" Neji said while veins started to thicken around his eyes.

"Your eyes they made you blind, you are blinded by arrogance. Do not underestimate me." Harry responded while going into his fighting stance. Harry waited for the Hyuuga to approach him, which after a few seconds happened just as he had predicted. A straight forward rush announced the start of the fight and Harry could see the trademark eyes of the Hyuuga looking through him.

Harry knew that one hit with this boy's Jyuuken could decide the fate of this battle, so Harry sidestepped the boy and lifted his left arm to hit him in the neck, but the Hyuuga was not that easy fool. Neji stopped Harry's left arm with his right and used his left arm to punch the smaller child three times. To everyone's surprise the boy did not collapse in pain but exploded in smoke.

"You should really get those eyes checked, Neji. The only thing you have managed to do was attack my clone." Harry said while kicking the Hyuuga in his popliteal space causing Neji to grunt and drop on one knee.

"Nothing less than what I expected from the rookie of the year." Neji said. "But I can see clearly that you will not be able to beat me." The boy stood up again and got into the famous gentle fist style stance.

Harry could see that the boy truly had earned the title of top student of his year, his stance was flawless.

However, this time it was not Neji that initiated, Harry's hands moved rapidly forming seals. Suddenly instead of just Harry standing in the middle of the circle made by students there were five Harry's opposing Neji.

Neji's eyes widened slightly in shock. "This fight is over Hyuuga-san" Harry said cheerfully. "These clones are not your ordinary clones, I am sure you can see that with those pretty eyes of yours." Harry mocked. "Touch them and they will explode with the power of three explosive notes." Harry said while his clones started to walk slowly towards the Hyuuga boy.

However instead of giving up Neji rushed towards Harry, throwing kunais at the clones causing the explosive clones to create a smokescreen. Taking advantage of his Byakugan he could easily see through the smokescreen. Standing directly in front of Harry, he prepared to use his best jyuuken move. Looking Harry straight in the face he announced his jutsu. "You are in my range, Eight trigrams thirty-two palms" he said with a victorious glint in his eyes. Harry however smiled back at the Neji who had by now lost consciousness. Harry's eyes were not their normal green anymore but blood red and spinning wildly. "I am sorry Neji, but I guess not even the famed Byakugan was a match against the genjutsu prowess of an Uchiha." Harry said.

The students that were all surrounding Harry and Neji started to clap and shout in excitement. Harry deactivated his sharingan and asked the girl that had accused him of being arrogant to take Neji inside. And informed her that the Hyuuga would wake up within a few minutes, if not she should get help.

Harry walked through the crowd ready to finally go inside the academy to hear to which team he had been assigned when a blonde boy ran after him. "That was so cool Harry! You really showed him huh? Could you teach me those jutsu's?" Naruto said in one breath.

"Naruto, it is so good to see you." Harry said evading a further rush of words.

"Yeah… so how have you been? I heard that your..." Naruto started but didn't finish obviously not knowing how to ask him about the massacre.

"I have been doing fine, look I am a real ninja now!" Harry said while pointing to his forehead protector that was proudly displayed around his waist as if it was a belt.

Naruto went down on his knees to look at the forehead protector from up close. "Wow, you really are a ninja now. I guess that means you won't have to play ninja with me anymore…"He said sulking slightly.

"I will always play ninja with you, don't be silly." Harry said. "But I have to go inside. They are going to assign the teams today and I do not want to be late. See you later all right?"

"Of course, uhmm, yes. See you later!" Naruto said a smile again apparent on his face.

Harry rushed himself into the class room where everyone else was already seated. So Harry walked towards the only place left, all the way in the back.

"Good you are all here." The teacher said. "I believe congratulations are in order. Every single one of you has managed to complete the exams with satisfactory scores meaning that as of today every single one of you is now a ninja of Konoha."

"As previously explained to you, you will all be divided in teams that will be led by Jounin. These teams will be your family for the rest of your career as genin perhaps even longer. You will train with them, eat with them, and probably spend more time with them than with your own family." The teacher said, the last words still ringing in Harry's head.

"The Hokage Himself has made your teams, and the members are non-negotiable so no complaints. First team consists of.." The teacher started to name the teams. "Team twelve will consist of Hyuuga Yuugi, Aburame Koh and Uchiha Haru. Your Jounin has requested you meet her at training ground two in..." the teacher looked at the clock. "Sixteen minutes."

Harry stood up and together with his newly assigned teammates they went outside silence accompanying them while they ran towards training grounds two.

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><p>Arriving at training ground two they saw a woman sitting on one of the wooden benches. The woman, who Harry assumed was their jounin, had brown hair and purple rectangular markings on her cheeks. The woman looked up as they walked towards her. "Ah, you must be the three genin that have been assigned to team twelve." The woman said.<p>

The three genin in front of her, keeping silent nodded in affirmation. "So, let's introduce ourselves. I will go first, so let's get seated." She said while motioning for the three genin to sit on the bench while she stood up.

As they all sat down she started :"My name is Rin and I am the jounin-sensei of rookie team twelve. I like to cook for my friends. I dislike people who disregard other people's feeling. My dream is to become the greatest healer ever." Looking at the boy left of Harry she said "Your turn."

The boy nodded "My name is Aburame Koh, I am eleven years old and I like to work at the Kikai Bugs hives. I dislike warm summer days and my dream is to one day have a family of my own with a wife and two children." The boy said emotionlessly while his sunglasses did not allow any of the others to look him in the eye.

"My name is Uchiha Haru, I am four years old and I like to eat treacle tart. I dislike.." while thinking about what he disliked Harry was looking as if he was a million miles away " I dislike selfish people. My dream is to one day see a world that is united by peace." Harry finished.

"My name is Hyuuga Yuugi." The girl that sat right of Harry said.

After a few moments of silence she continued. "I am eleven years old and I like to work in my spare time in the Hyuuga gardens. I dislike people who mock my family and friends." Yuugi said looking angrily at Harry. "My dream is to serve the main branch." Yuugi finished.

"So now that we all have introduced ourselves I should probably tell you that tomorrow you will have your team test. You will meet me here at seven in the morning, be on time. And if you are smart you won't eat.. You will just throw it up once we are done if you do." Rin said after which she shunshined away. Harry and his teammates looked at eachother. "we're doomed." Harry said.

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><p><strong>AN:<strong> Please review this chapter, I am curious to know wht you all thought of this chapter. Next chapter I will write about the team test. Also if you guys have any omake's you want to see post your requests in your review and I might write yours for the next chapter!


	16. For whom does the bell toll?

**AN**:Hello dear readers, Saturday marked the day of the **300th** review!  
>so some statistics for those who are interested:<p>

97,726 Hits!  
>60,427 words.<br>300 reviews.

Now I want to celebrate this by posting an extra mean cliffhanger. So please enjoy this chapter. And don't forget to review!

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><p><strong>Chapter 15: For whom does the bell toll?<strong>

Early mornings bathed in the pureness of the night always made Harry feel truly alive, the fresh clean air that entered his lungs refreshing his thoughts awakening him. Looking around Harry could see that the village was slowly coming alive as well.

Having already enjoyed a big breakfast Harry was ready to take the test his jounin-sensei had prepared. To think that his Jounin-sensei was going to be the famous Rin was truly something that was on the top of Harry's 'Cool things that happened to me since I have become a genin' list.

The student of the fourth Hokage was not just an ordinary ninja, she was well known for her prowess in the healing arts and some even said she was on her way to become as talented as the Legendary Sannin princess Senju herself. If he and his team would be able to pass this test Harry might be able to learn about healing others with his chakra. Looking at his hand that he had destroyed his mirror with earlier this week, he could see that the wounds he had were healed perfectly. Harry knew that he had his own chakra always healing him; it was something he had been aware of since he was about one year in this world. But being able to heal himself would not help his team mates or other people. If Harry wanted to truly bring peace to this world then being able to tend to the wounded was a must.

Harry knew that they would most likely have to do the bell test; he was hoping they would because if that would be the test of Rin's choice they would not fail. He was sure that he could work together well enough with the Hyuuga and Aburama kid to trap Rin.

Looking at the rising sun Harry knew he had only a few more minutes before he needed to be at the training ground. So he decided to just walk slowly, enjoy the scenery and fresh air.

Harry was the first to arrive on the training ground and so he sat down, under the only tree on the training ground, waiting for the others.  
>The first to arrive was Koh; the boy was wearing sunglasses even though there hardly was any light. "Good morning Aburame Koh." Harry said motioning for the boy to sit beside him. "Good morning Haru-san." Koh replied politely.<p>

"You can call me Harry; all my friends call me Harry." Harry told Koh.

"Then you should call me Koh, all my friends call me Koh." Koh said while sitting down next to Harry.

Though Harry had never really talked to Koh before he had seen him plenty times playing with different kind of bugs. "So… Do you have Kikai bugs inside of you yet?" Harry asked, feeling awkward.

"Yes, I was given them before I started the ninja academy." Koh answered emotionlessly.

"You should probably spread them around the area, in case we will have to fight Rin; we need to be prepared for her. I have already prepared my chakra for battle." Harry said, hoping the boy would heed his advice. But before Koh answered Yuugi came running.

"I am not late am I?" She asked panting while her white eyes showed mild panic.

"We have eight minutes left before Rin-sensei will be here." Koh told her. "Harry, my bugs are spreading as we speak I am prepared for nearly any kind of attack."

Harry nodded. "We will most likely have to take the bell test." Harry told his two team mates, who in turn nodded. "Do you both know what that test entails?" he asked of them. Again they both nodded in affirmation.

"It means we will have to work together. Or we will fail." Yuugi answered. "I guess we need to know what each of us is capable of." She said while sitting down as well. In a whisper she continued. "I am proficient with my Byakugan and Gentle fist. If I can get within a two meters distance I should be able to use the eight trigrams which will mean she will be distracted enough by me to be attacked by the two of you."

Harry was pleasantly surprised by the insight Yuugi seemed to have. "When you use your Byakugan, how far can you see?" Harry asked. "Perhaps we could use your byakugan to locate her while Koh uses his bugs to drain her of her chakra."

Yuugi answered first. "If I stay stationary I can see as far as one hundred meters, in movement I can't see clearly past-"Yuugi stopped talking as Rin suddenly appeared behind her.

"Good morning dear students." Rin greeted the trio in front of her. "I hope you have all slept well because you will need all your strength if you want to pass this next test." Rin said ominously. The trio stood up as if one. "Ah it is good to see such fierce determined faces. However this test will be tougher than anything you have had to go through." she said leaving them in suspense. "Two of you will have a chance of continuing this career path, the other one-" and with this she looked at Yuugi. "will sadly have to give up on his or her dream of becoming an actual ninja." She said holding up two bells.

The three genin nodded, knowing that it was all just part of the test, to make them feel desperate and egotistic. "Your goal is to get a bell, if you can obtain one of these bells you pass and I will take you under my wing and train you. If you fail to do so..." again she looked at Yuugi who started to get red in anger. "You will remain useless forever."

"From now on, hold on to your dear lives. If you fall off a cliff," at this she grinned maliciously, "you might as well try to fly. After all, you got nothing to lose." Rin said as she, seemingly exploded in movement and darted away.

The three genin however just remained standing where they were which caused Rin to raise her eye-brows.

* * *

><p>In the village two men had gathered in the Hokage's office. Both were sitting around a desk on which a spherical glass object was prominently displayed. Both men were silent as they were closely watching the glass orb.<p>

"The test has started." Hiruzen commentated. "I wonder if he will be able to use his skills in the field. Showing them off is one thing, putting them to good use is another."

"I have full confidence he is able to do just that, Hiruzen. Ability can take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there." Danzo said defending the boy. "And this boy has character."

"That he does, but is it the right kind? After all vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare." Hiruzen pondered out loud.

* * *

><p>"So, Uchiha-wonder," Yuugi started. "You have told Koh and I what to do, now what will your role be in this fight?" she asked in a whisper.<p>

Harry looked at the white eyed Hyuuga with a small grin. "I will distract her of course, while the two of you try your best to get those bells. Use the time I give you efficiently, I do not know for how long I will be able to keep her focused on me." Harry said while walking forward.

Harry put on his puppy eyes, slowly walking forward while calling out to the jounin in his most cute child voice he could create. "Rin-sensei, I am scared." Harry started to say while inching closer. "I… I am afraid that if I don't pass this test no one will like me anymore." Harry started to feel his eyes moisten; just a little bit more and she would have no choice but to break under my cuteness he thought. "Rin-sama will you please give me one of those bells?" Harry now had big tears streaming on his face while he pouted and kept his eyes open, hoping to distract the woman enough to make her not notice the bugs that were slowly covering her legs.

Harry could see the conflicted face of his jounin-sensei; would she fall for this trick? Harry inched even closer as he could see the bugs covering their sensei even more. Suddenly the bugs started to collect faster and the entire body of their sensei was covered in the chakra consuming creatures. After a few moments in which Harry thought they were victorious he heard Yuugi yell at him "It is just an Iwa-bunshin."

Looking back he could see the bulged veins around Yuugi's eyes indicating she had activated her byakugan.

"Tsk tsk, Uchiha-san, you are such a cute child, but you need more than sad eyes to trick me, a seasoned jounin." Rin chastised while sitting in the tree.

Harry was trying to hide his shock; he had not seen her use any hand signs to indicate that she had created a bunshin. Did that mean that she had been a Bunshin from the start?

While Rin's bunshin was crumbling down, Koh's bugs started to move towards Rin ready to completely drain her chakra.

Rin however was already rushing away. "Come on Aburame you surely do not think I am that easy to catch. You need to try harder or you will never get one of these bells." Rin said dangling the bells as if to bait them. "Failure is the stepping stone for success, now show me how you continue your journey towards the bells."

Harry started to collect his chakra. "Yuugi, Koh stand behind me!" he yelled. "Rin-sama, so far you have not attacked us. Do you deem us too fragile to attack? Or are you afraid that if you come too close we will get those bells?" Harry asked of the jounin, hoping to lure her into actually engaging them in battle or at least distracting her.

Rin however stood still, keeping one eye on the bugs that were still following her. "Hmpf" Rin smiled and made three clones. Each of the clones ran towards one of his teammates with a readied kunai. Harry however was prepared for something like this and knew just what to do.

Inhaling Harry took some of his collected chakra "Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" and as he exhaled he released a bright flame that was ready to consume all in its path. The three clones that Rin had poured her chakra into were caught in the fire and Rin had to actually use her shunshin to not get caught in the fire as well.

Harry could see that Yuugi used the distraction the flames had granted her to run towards the bushes and hide in them while signing for Koh and Harry to lure Rin there.

Koh slowly put his hand down casting some sort of chakra web on the ground, collecting more and more bugs while Harry ran towards the jounin.

* * *

><p>So far Rin had been impressed with these three genin. Up to now the Uchiha had been the one to distract her while the Aburame and Hyuuga were preparing their own attacks using the time they were given.<p>

After the first 'Goukakyuu' she had noticed that the Hyuuga had disappeared from sight. The girl was probably hiding somewhere, readying some traps in the bushes. Just how the academy textbook described how a proper battle should be fought.

Rin decided to taunt her student after his astonishing display of a katon jutsu, wondering how he would react. "Hmm, not bad Uchiha-san" She said remembering how her previous sensei had said the same to Obito once... "But you will have to try harder than spewing a few flames to catch me." She taunted. Dashing forward once again she closed in on the small Uchiha and kicked him, or better said she kicked a wooden log which the boy had used to substitute with, the log flew up in the air, landing a few meters in front of her on the ground.

"If God had wanted man to fly, he would have given him wings." The youngest genin spoke standing behind her. "You said I needed more than a few flames to 'catch'you" he said.

"Consider it lesson one, kid." She taunted while noticing that the Aburame was still preparing himself for a bigger attack. "You need the big guns for the grownups."

Rin could see the boy narrowing his eyes at her remark but a small grin started to become visible on his face "That could be arranged." The boy said ominously. Rin wondered what he meant by that. His previous display had been of a higher level than she had thought possible for the small child. However she could clearly feel the boy's chakra rising to new heights. But if he were to use so much chakra on a mere katon jutsu… It could prove to be disastrous. Knowing that if the boy would use that much chakra on a fire jutsu she would need to protect not only herself but her future students as well. So she poured her chakra in to the earth through her right hand "Doton Doryu Heki!" she screamed out creating a huge stone wall.

Out of nowhere ninja wire seemed to constrict her, supposedly making her unable to move. "Ryuuka no Jutsu." The boy all but bellowed. Fire was streaming along the ninja wires, creating a dragon like creature that was ready to consume her.

Using the substitute technique she switched herself with the wooden log that was now on the other side of her wall.

However as soon as she was on the other side of the wall , she heard a girly voice call out "You are in my reach! Eight trigrams thirty-two palms!" Rin had just enough time to turn around to see the Byakugan peering into her. 'Poof' she heard in the background, most likely another clone. The girl started to move faster than she had previously shown to be capable off but Rin was not a jounin for nothing and evaded all her hits with ease. Rin could feel that the wall she had made earlier was starting to really heat up, sparing the wall a glance she could see it was actually starting to melt.

Using her feet, she stomped the ground once and the wall of stone thickened to twice its width. Using her momentum she jumped on the wall, evading not only the last few hits of the Hyuuga girl but the bugs that had slowly been moving in as well.

Looking down on her, as she now thought of them, students, she was surprised to see how vicious they were in their attempts in getting her bells. Though she did not have long to contemplate on what to do next as the wall came crumbling down eroded by the water jutsu the Uchiha boy's Kage bunshin had used.

Afraid to lose her footing she jumped down, noticing that bugs were still chasing her she let them get near her, perhaps these genin were worth putting her faith in.

The Hyuuga once again rushed in on her but before the girl could even plant a hit on her she had kicked her away. From behind she could feel that once again the Uchiha was collecting his chakra. Feeling the huge amounts of chakra the boy was collecting she shunshined behind him and encamped him in stone. However the boy exploded covering her in bugs.

Getting rid of the bugs was not that difficult, deciding that the three genin had passed her test she let the bugs seemingly unknown to her take the bells away.

Looking to her right she could see Koh stand with the two bells in his hand while the Uchiha kid was standing beside him smirking.

"My bugs were able to get us those bells while my team mates distracted you sensei. Does this mean we have passed the test?" Koh asked of her with a hint of pride apparent in his voice.

Rin grinned as she remembered what it felt like to be in that position, with her own team. After looking all three genin in the eyes she nodded and said "Welcome to team twelve."

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><p>Harry was once again lying on his bed, alone. Today had been a tiring day and while he had enjoyed it thoroughly he could not help but regret eating that steak. After passing the bell test his now jounin-sensei Rin had orchestrated, she had taken them out to dinner as to celebrate the fact that they were now an official team. Harry however thought she was celebrating because a jounin-sensei earned some serious money.<p>

Starting tomorrow they would train and go on missions. And Harry was perhaps more excited to learn some interesting healing jutsu than that he was excited about his first actual mission.

He knew that his first few missions would be dull but a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. And a journey to grant this world true peace, might be longer than a thousand miles but still started with that single step.

Falling asleep that night had been easy and his dreams for once were not plagued with visions of death and despair, but filled with moments of joy and happiness.

* * *

><p>Harry was rushing through the woods with his team. They were chasing their target. Hyuuga Yuugi currently had her byakugan activated and was giving the entire team the coordination's of where their target was.<p>

This was their first mission and already they were working like a well-oiled machine. The target had no chance of escaping as Harry could see her clearly now. She was fast and very flexible but not too much for Harry as he dived towards her. However she got away, making sounds of displeasure as she started to run even faster.

It was Aburame Koh who was standing in front of their target now, ready to grab her and endure the thrashing she would give him. Succeeding in his efforts it was Koh that had successfully endangered himself by being in close quarters with the demonic-hell-cat.

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><p><strong>Small time skip<strong>

* * *

><p>Harry was walking down the stairs rubbing his sleep filled eyes while he heard the toilet flushing away his dinner of last night.<p>

This morning would be the first time Harry and his team were going to get an actual C-ranked mission. Harry was excited by that prospect.  
>You went on your first C-ranked mission only once after all. The special thing about it was that it kind of signified the growth his team had made, they were able to work together and knew each other well enough to start trusting the other members. Your first C-ranked mission acknowledged the fact that a team was good enough to be seen as actual ninja instead of glorified handymen. No longer would they have to paint fences, clean out barns or chase after demonic-hell-cats.<p>

Harry was putting on his socks as he heard Sasuke starting to wake up as well. It had been eight weeks since Sasuke had finally been released from the hospital, and it were eight weeks in which they had time to settle down.

Sasuke had been the only company he had in this house since his clan had been slaughtered, the boy had acted colder than he had been before the massacre and it made Harry worry about his bigger brother.  
>Even though he had been spending a lot of time with his brother the kid just seemed to be unreachable, more closed off than before.<p>

"Good morning Sasuke!" Harry greeted the lethargic boy.

"Morning." His brother managed to grunt out while stumbling forward.

Ever since Sasuke had come back home, out of the hospital, they had introduced a sort of morning ritual. Harry would wake up first after which he would make enough noise for Sasuke to wake up. Then Harry would make up the beds as Sasuke made them breakfast. So far it had almost been comforting to have an actual morning rhythm. Almost normal…

Waking up at half past six in the morning, enjoying breakfast and spar with Sasuke for half an hour each week-day had been Harry's drill for almost eight weeks now. After training they would take a shower and Harry would go to the team-meeting while Sasuke would prepare himself to go to the academy.

Sasuke had thrown himself entirely into his studies, even at home the normally playful boy would not just lazily lay around playing or running around the compound, no the boy would bury himself in his books or practicing his technique with kunai and shuriken.

Harry was glad that the money they had received as the lone lawful survivors of the Uchiha clan covered the costs the bigger boy made with his numerous purchases.

The weekly allowance the village of Konoha granted them made sure they would stay well-fed and kept Sasuke in school.

Harry earned some salary with his D-ranked missions, but Harry put most of that money to good use, either saving it up for later or spending it on another orphan boy that needed the support.

Eating his breakfast, Harry enjoyed the silence that seemed to dominate the early hours in the Uchiha mansion. Neither boy was talking until Sasuke coughed and grunted "Pass me some milk." That was yet another thing that had changed about his brother, the boy used to be so energetic and polite, even in the early mornings. But Harry guessed that Sasuke mourned differently than he did.

Fifteen minutes later both boys could be found sparring near the pond in their very own backyard. The bigger boy obviously was stronger when it came to brute strength yet he seemed to be no match for the much smaller but faster child.

Sasuke in all their sparring sessions had not been able to land a single hit on Harry, Harry was just too agile and his technique was of a whole other level.

"Hyaah!" Sasuke screamed while trying to land a hit with his right fist. Harry however dodged by setting one step back.

"You need to stretch your entire body while punching, Sasuke." Harry advised the boy. "You have the advantage in this spar; you are bigger and thus have a bigger reach. Use that advantage. A miss by an inch is a miss by a mile. And in a fight you cannot afford to miss a single hit."

Sasuke nodded and continued the assault on his brother with renewed vigor. After a while Harry blocked one of Sasuke's kicks. "That was enough for today." Harry told him. "It is time to stop. The academy opens in twenty minutes and you smell." Harry said as he waved his hand as if to wave the stink away. "Go take a shower." Harry joked.

"You don't exactly smell like roses yourself either." Sasuke responded while panting. "Besides, my showers only take a few minutes… yours take like half an hour." He complained, taunting the boy.

"Hmm, at least I don't spend ages in front of the mirror perfecting every single strand of hair!" Harry teased back.

"And it shows." Sasuke said, turning around, grabbing his towel and heading towards the shower.

Harry stuck out his tongue and laughed.

* * *

><p>Meeting his team in front of the hokage's tower, Harry felt excited. Their first actual C-ranked mission!<p>

Rin, his team's jounin-sensei was talking to them before they went inside. "As I have told you three, today we will be requesting our first C-ranked mission. This means that I am confident enough in our teamwork to go out of the village." She said. "You three have been showing great potential not only as individuals but also as a team." At hearing the compliment all three genin stood up a bit straighter. "A C-ranked mission will mean that there are minimal dangers involved. If it comes down to it, I want all three of you to follow my commands no matter what. If I tell you to run, you run. If I tell you hide you hide. If I tell you to kill…"at hearing this all three genin looked up, "you kill. Only if you can make me that promise will I take you on this mission." Rin said with grave looking eyes.

"You are our jounin-sensei; of course I will follow your every command while we are on a mission." Koh promised.

"I promise, Rin-sama!" Harry and Yuugi said simultaneously.

"Good. Now let's go inside and collect our mission." Rin said turning around and laying her hand on Yuugi's shoulder.

As they walked to the office of the Hokage Harry felt himself getting more and more excited. 'an actual mission, this will be my first real chance to prove my worth.' Harry thought. Looking at his teammates he could see that they as well were pumped up. Koh's sunglasses were of a darker shade than they normally were and Yuugi had her battle robes on. Harry himself had also put on his ninja attire.

Wearing fingerless gloves with iron plates to help him while defending. Long dark blue trousers with a lot of pockets to keep his ninja gear in and a belt made out of his forehead protector. The Uchiha crest had been proudly sewn on the back of his dark blue short sleeved high collared shirt that hid his neck. Overall Harry felt completely ready for action.

* * *

><p>"Your mission will be delivering this scroll to the head of the Ubitake clan." The Hokage announced. "Make sure the scroll remains sealed and that it only gets opened by the Ubitake's clan head; Ubitake Yuura. Even if you have to use force." He explained.<p>

In response team twelve nodded in affirmation. Rin took the scroll and placed it in her backpack.

"The scroll needs to be delivered before sunset tomorrow, make sure it does or Konoha could lose an important financial ally." Sarutobi urged.

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><p>Team twelve had been walking the better part of the afternoon and if Harry was completely honest, this mission was not what he had expected a C-rank to be. There was no action, no real time pressure… The scenery was nice though.<p>

"How much further is it Rin-sensei?" Yuugi asked in a bored tone, obviously this mission had not been what she had hoped it would be either.

"If we keep this pace we should be there tomorrow before sunrise." Rin answered.

It was during situations like these that Harry hated the rules of apparition; you could not apparate to a place you could not visualize. If only he had been there before, if that would have been the case they could have been there in a pop and be back a second later.

However, even if it was possible he could not have done it. He had not shown his team that he could apparate. And for now he wanted to keep it that way, he was only a genin, for now.

So they just had to walk.

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><p>She had no illusions when it came to being a kunoichi, the clan had made sure to inform it's children of exactly what your job was if you were aspiring to become a ninja.<p>

Yuugi may not have been a genius among her kin but she knew her way around the Byakugan and Jyuuken. She had been taught the Jyuuken from a young age and she was proud to be able to claim that she was now proficient enough in the arts that she had been allowed to spar in the intermediate dojos.

In battle and in general Yuugi had always prided herself on her sharp observation skills. Being instantly aware when there was danger or when someone was close. Being a Hyuuga had granted her skills that had made her almost clairvoyant, the white eyes that could see through every lie of men. That could see beyond the horizon were her most precious possession.

However as a kunai embedded her and she fell to the ground she knew that her skills had failed her for the first time.

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><p><strong>AN:<strong> The title of this chapter was meant to represent or announce two events, the bell test, and what happened in the last sentence.  
>I have tried to make the bell test action packed and well thought out, let me know in a review what you thought of this chapter.<p>

*I have edited the prologue, not much has changed but it certainly is easier to read now.

**I have finished writing the last chapter of this story, and it is epic. Now only thing I need to do is write the chapters between them...


	17. A mercenary's plot

**AN:** Celebrating the fact that this story now has over 100.000 hits and I've had an actual day-off I've decided to upload another chapter!

Hopefully it will get more reviews than the last one did… Only 7 reviewers (all of them were awesome by the way!) But it makes me wonder if something was off about the last chapter? If so tell me.

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><p><strong>Chapter 16: A mercenary's plot<strong>

Harry saw the kunai that was sticking out of Yuugi's neck. The girl was bleeding profusely and had seemingly lost consciousness. Luckily Rin was fast to respond and was already healing the wounded girl.

Harry dropped into a fighting stance while activating his Sharingan waiting for either the enemy to make a move or for Rin to tell him what to do. Being in a real dangerous situation without a wand was frightening. There was no 'Aresto Momentum' spell to slow down incoming projectiles; no 'Protego' to protect him, no instant stunning spells. No he needed to be on his toes in this world of ninja.

Koh had as soon as he had seen Yuugi fall released his bugs, forming a protective dome around their sensei and teammate.

It did not take long before another kunai was piercing the air, this time ready to wound the Aburame. Harry however could clearly see it coming and threw his own kunai to block it, the sound of the collision causing Koh to turn around.

"She's okay for now, Koh stay with her and protect her!" He heard his sensei say. Koh opened the dome around their sensei allowing her to walk out. "Show yourself!" Rin screamed before throwing a dozen senbon needles into the trees.

Appearing on the road were two buff ninja. Both had forehead protectors without a village symbol etched in it. "Give us the Uchiha and we will go peacefully." one of them said with a small smirk.

Harry wondered why these guys wanted him, but whatever it was it probably meant trouble. Readying himself for actual assault he collected his chakra to access it more easily when he needed it.

"You realize that such an offer would never work with Konoha ninja, don't you?" Rin said fiercely. "I give you three seconds to scurry away from here or I will end your ninja-career right now." His sensei threatened.

Harry could see that the two buff ninja were no push-overs, the numerous scars on their body told him that much. And unsurprisingly neither of the two seemed to back down after hearing his sensei out.

"1." Rin counted while none of the hostile ninja moved.

"2." She continued. Both men were now looking at each other, but still made no signs of leaving.

"3." All of the sudden not only the two men disappeared from their places but also Rin. Harry could see with his sharingan that they were running towards each other, Rin with glowing hands of blue chakra and the two men with kunai readied in their hands.

"Koh, stay with Yuugi, protect her, I'll try to help Rin-sensei." Harry said to the Aburame. Using the chakra he had collected earlier he created two shadow clones, sending them both to help his team-captain. Harry knew that his speed was not even close to the speeds the three jounin-level-ninja possessed but his clones could perhaps help Rin by distracting the other two.

However before they even got close they were destroyed by a third ninja that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Tut. Tut. Children like you shouldn't interfere in a grownups fight. So be a good little boy and just relax while I slowly and painfully take those scary eyes of yours. Got it?" The woman said as if talking to a four year old. "Do you know how long we have been waiting for Konoha to put out not only a Hyuuga but also an Uchiha on a mission outside of the land of fire? It was a serious drag waiting here." The kunoichi went on, acting very dramatic." So then I had the brilliant idea of impersonating dear old Ubitake-dono. We sent a scroll to your foolish Hokage describing how I,clan head of the Ubitake family, was not sure if my finances were in good hands with the sudden death of all those strong Uchiha's and rumors of Konoha becoming the weaker village." The woman finished, laughing madly.

"It matters not to what lengths you went through get your hands on our doujutsu's, you will not succeed." Harry said exuding confidence but feeling quite frightened. The woman was obviously skilled; her entire stance seemed to radiate death.

Before Harry even had time to move he could see the woman dashing forward, his sharingan visually slowing down and predicting her movements, but Harry could not keep up and was kicked, hard, in his lower abdomen.

Smashing into a tree Harry coughed up blood. He could not win this fight like this. Harry saw Koh taking Yuugi away and hiding her somewhere, glad to know they would not get in the crossfire Harry relaxed a little.

"Fuck, why do you want my bloody Sharingan anyways!" Harry screamed out. He needed to stretch this battle for as long as he could.

"Oh, sweet boy. Don't get me wrong. It is not I who wants those red little orbs." The kunoichi said walking slowly towards him. After taking three steps shoe dashed forward in sudden movement, now the Kunoichi was standing over him, "However, I want what I can get for them." she whispered holding up his chin and looking at him red hair framing her face.

Harry took advantage of the situation and used his sharingan to trap the woman in a genjutsu, causing her to back off. However before he could really make use of the situation he could feel she had stopped her chakra completely effectively shu8tting down his genjutsu.

"You bastard!" she screamed in anger taking out a kunai of her holster. Harry however had time enough to use his go to jutsu. He inhaled collecting as much chakra as could and screamed "Goukakyuu no jutsu". Huge white-orange flames erupted out of his mouth as he exhaled. Never before had he poured this much chakra into his flames and he could feel the heat affecting him.

* * *

><p>Koh had seen that Harry was being attacked by the female ninja but he had his orders, and he had promised to, no matter what, follow them.<p>

Laying Yuugi down on one of the huge branches, he hoped Harry and Rin were doing alright. But before he even got the chance to think about going back to the battle field his bugs warned him of incoming danger.

Three kunai rushed past his face as he sidestepped them. "Hmm, not bad. For a genin that is." A man said playfully. "Let's see what happens if I throw them _twice_ as fast."

Eight kunai seemed to appear out of nowhere yet Koh managed to dodge seven of them, somehow. Koh's bugs had found the man that was targeting him. Turning around Koh looked the man right into his face.

"Ya know what. If you just stay there I'll take the pretty little Hyuuga with me Okay?" The ninja proposed. "Wouldn't really want to hurt ya."

Koh however knew that if the men stood still for a few more seconds his bugs would be able to latch on to the man, sucking him dry of chakra.

"If I were to stand down, would you promise not to hurt me or my other teammates?" He asked, stalling.

The ninja grinned, yellow teeth becoming visible. "That is da spirit kid! Good, good!" The man laughed joyfully. "Yes, I can promise that… Just stay where ya are and…" The ninja started but before he could utter out another word hundreds if not thousands of bugs started to surround him. The ninja wanted to scream but the bugs were already crawling down his throat and nose, suffocating him.

"Never attack an Aburame in the forest. We have too many allies here." Koh stated shakily, holding his hand on the wound the kunai had caused earlier. As the yellow teethed ninja died a slow death Koh collapsed, blood gushing out of side as fire started to take hold of the tree he and Yuugi were currently hiding in.

* * *

><p>Rin had been using her chakra scalpels since the start of the fight; she had already succeeded in cutting the aorta of one of the men but not without cost. In a last desperate attack the man had somehow turned his hand into stone and had effectively punched the air out of her lungs by breaking her ribs.<p>

However, she was not a medic for nothing and she knew that if she used her chakra she could heal those internal wounds within seconds, all she needed was to distract the other man.

Running away from the ninja that was left she stomped the ground several times, softening it with her earth-based chakra. The man had come after her but the ground was too soft for him to stand on and so the man fell into pit. Stomping once more Rin closed the pit off, making sure she had time to heal her broken ribs while that man was trying to get out.

She needed to heal a total of three ribs, one of them close to puncturing her lung. Carefully she used her right hand to keep the bones in place with while she used her left hand to guide the chakra through to mend the bones. They would still need some work but for now it would have to do.

Looking behind her she could see that her student was fighting a third enemy, and if her eyes did not betray her it was Mira of the Axe. Her student had no chance of beating her, her axe was one of the weapons the third Mizukage had created, a fear inducing battle axe that had supposedly been the downfall of the second Mizukage.

However before she could help her student she first had to deal with the ninja that was currently crawling out of the earth.

* * *

><p>Harry stopped breathing out the flames. As far as he could see flames were eating away trees, the kunoichi that had attacked him earlier however was nowhere to be found. Destruction was the only sight that met Harry's eyes, though in the distant he could see that Rin, his sensei was still fighting one of the two men.<p>

Harry once again collected his chakra this time to stop the fires by releasing a flood of water. As water was now pouring out of mouth he could see that the fires were successfully being extinguished, but also that nothing had survived the onslaught.

"You thought that was enough to take me out, brat!" he heard a voice yell above him. Looking up he saw that the female ninja coming down towards him she was covered in burn marks but seemed to be alright.

"It takes more than that to take out the legendary mercenary Mira!" She screamed summoning a huge blood red axe from a scroll, closing in even faster Harry was sure that he was going to be beheaded. Panic took hold of him and he froze closing his eyes.

"Gaaahhh!" he heard the female's voice gurgle. He could feel blood dripping down his arm. But as he opened his eyes he saw that it was not his but the woman's blood.

A huge stone spear had risen from the ground that had pierced through the woman's head.

Rin shun shined next to him, "Are you alright?" she asked, panting slightly.

"Yeah. Yeah I am fine. Thanks…" he said shakily.

"Good." Rin said quietly.

"It was all a set-up, Rin! This entire mission was a set-up!" Harry told her.

"Tell me where Yuugi and Koh are." Rin asked as if suddenly understanding something. Taking hold of Harry's arm as if he was about to fall over she continued "Point me in their direction; I don't think that there were just three ninja!"

"They went that way." Harry answered, pointing towards the burned parts of the forest.

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><p>After Rin had found Koh she healed him and then went over to Harry to do a checkup. "You're lucky; you came out of that battle unharmed; only some bruises." Rin told him before explaining who had attacked them.<p>

"We will make camp here until both Koh and Yuugi are ready to go. We will be rewarded greatly for the bounty on some of these ninja's heads, and that axe… it will make me rich" Rin said as she put her hands together, rubbing them.

Harry looked at the now peacefully sleeping Koh. The boy had killed a man all by himself. It made Harry think back of the first time he had killed someone in self-defense. Even though the situations could not be more differently. He had been untrained unaware of the dangers that were lurking around the corner. But this child knew what he was getting into when he became a genin.

Even after more than four years of living in this world Harry thought it was odd to send children to do a man's job. Fighting wars or working should not be left children yet it somehow worked well in this universe.

And today he had almost died. Fear had frozen him. Despite all the skills he possessed he had not been able to put up a good fight against that woman. She had been so fast. Harry had not even considered all the options he had, he could have used his Mangekyou or Apparition skills. Yet in the heat of battle all he had done was spew fire.

Even an army of explosive clones probably would have worked better. Why hadn't he thought clearly? Why was he with all his experience and abilities less of a ninja than Koh had been? Koh had been able to subdue a jounin all by himself yet Harry hadn't.

"Leave the battle on the battlefield, Harry. It does not help you nor your team to think in circles." Rin said while poking a stick into the fire. "Those four ninja were all of atleast chuunin level, you have thought a good fight Harry. You did what you needed to do, you stalled long enough for me to take care of her."

Harry looked at Rin; he knew she was right of course. But she did not know the whole story. He was not just a child, he was almost ancient. "I…" Harry started unsure of what to say. "My judgment was clouded; I could have done so many things differently… And it almost cost me my life." Harry said turning his head away from Rin's gaze.

Rin poked the fire once more with her stick. "Well you realize what went wrong did you not?" she asked of him.

"Yeah… I do." Harry confessed.

"Then learn from it and grow stronger." She grabbed his hand and guided it to his heart. "We ninja fight for what we want to protect, we put everything on the line for our hearts. We want to do everything we can to reach our goals, whether to protect or to destroy." She guided his hand to his forehead. "But it is with our brains that we fight the toughest battle. The battle of knowing what to do and when to do it." She said letting go of his hand and stood up. "There is an old saying around Konoha, 'If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.'" Walking away Rin said one last thing. "Think about that."

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><p>Sasuke had woken up this morning without his little brother present in the house. It felt much more peaceful this way, knowing that the blood traitor was not in the same house or even land as him.<p>

When Itachi had trapped him in that genjutsu he had seen flashes of images. One of those images had been the Naka shrine. It was for that reason that Sasuke, who could now freely go anywhere he pleased without being watched, went to that exact shrine.

He had only gone inside once before, at his birth, but despite that he knew exactly where the Naka shrine could be found. He and his family always placed flowers there for every Uchiha fallen in battle. That was why he had taken with him one white flower.

Placing the flower on the steps of the shrine Sasuke squashed all the memories and feelings that started to well up. He needed to be strong, and one can only grow strong if you don't let your emotions get in the way. It was how he was still able to be in the same room as that.. little brother of his.

After taking a moment the raven haired boy decided to walk into the shrine. He had always wondered what was inside, but his mother had always told him he was not allowed to go inside again until he was of age or accepted as a genin.

However with his mother gone those rules did not apply anymore. The stone walls were actually giant tablets on which fighting scenes were depicted. The shrine was actually just a big hall. In the flash of the Naka shrine Sasuke had seen that there was a trap door somewhere, and after searching the place he found it. Opening the door it revealed another staircase, going down.

It was dark down there so Sasuke lighted one of the many candles that stood on the ground and brought it with him.

The scenes that were depicted on the tablets in the hall had looked old and faded. However the battles that were painted on these walls were very detailed and still looked brand new, if he had not known better he would've thought that they were recently made.

The battles all featured the same man, in a red armor and long black hair. The man had a huge weapon strapped on his back. The further he got down the staircase the more battles he saw, after a while he noticed something odd, the man who had starred in every battle so far with a fully awakened sharingan now still had red eyes but with a strange pattern in them. Kneeling Sasuke could see that there were words engraved "Mangekyou Sharingan" they read.

'What is that?' Sasuke wondered. Deciding to continue walking down he saw that the man was becoming blind, his eyes grew darker until there was an entire tablet painted black.

Reaching the last tablet all he saw was a tiny part of it was painted, the rest seemed to be empty. It was not really painted but there were a lot of Kanji. Taking his time Sasuke read them.

"'Those pure of blood and spirit can read the stone whole, those with the cursed eye can see all but the wicked truth, they with the white eyes see no more than the last remnant of the Rikoudou and those with the Rikoudou's eyes see more than they ought to."

Sasuke wondered what all of that meant. But he kept on reading.

"The nine-tails of demons can be mastered by thy with the eye of the kaleidoscope, by thy needs the three tomoed and the death of thy bestest companion to see the path that leads to the most wicketh of powers"

Sasuke was sure that this meant something more than what he could make out of it on first sight. Deciding that he needed help with unraveling this mystery he wrote it all down and made sure that once he dreamed of his inner, true self again they would discuss this, in detail.


	18. The weasel and the snake

**AN**: Hey all, currently working on reüploading previous chapter with added scenes and better spelling/grammar. Currently redid everything up to chapter four.  
>Once again redid the prologue so a reread of that chapter might be usefull seeing as I added a very imported scene to it.<p>

I hope you all enjoy this Itachi-centric chapter, and don't forget to review!

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><p><strong>Chapter 17: The weasel and the snake facing the dignified cold part 1<strong>

Tonight he had killed his family. Not a soul had survived the sharp edge of his sword, and now while trying to get the blood out of his clothes, he was being watched by the very man who had orchestrated every kill.

"So, will you uphold your end of the deal, Itachi?" the masked man asked of him. The man's threatening voice piercing through the cold silent night.

Itachi kept washing the blood, which had splattered on him when he had killed his family by slicing their throats open, out his clothes, the river's water was as cold as ice and he could not feel his fingers anymore but the blood needed to get out of his clothing. "My planned course of action has not changed." Itachi said filtering every emotion other than boredom out of his voice.

This man was dangerous, and it was for that exact fact that Itachi was assigned the mission to keep tabs on him.

"The meeting will **start in five minutes**." The plantlike man said in two different voices. Itachi however didn't spare the ninja a glance. Deciding to give up on his efforts to wash the blood stains out of his shirt and pants Itachi took out a scroll and summoned an extra set of clothing.

"Zetsu, you will introduce Itachi as the new ninth Akatsuki member. Pain has already been informed of the change." The masked man said, turning around to look at Itachi he continued ominously "All you have to do is show your worth."

Itachi, who during the conversation had changed his clothing, simply nodded at this new information.

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><p>Walking into one of the many Senju Shrines that the land of fire was blessed with, Itachi saw four people standing next to each other. Activating his sharingan Itachi did not want to leave anything during this meeting to chance.<p>

As his eyes opened he heard a hissing voice. "Uchiha Itachi!" it said. Itachi looked at the man that had uttered those words. Orochimaru, one of the three legendary Sannin was standing on the far left.

"So killing you family was not enough of a betrayal to your village, ku ku ku." The snakelike man said. Itachi didn't bother to respond to such a meaningless question; however he did note that somehow this man knew that he had killed his entire family just a few hours prior to this meeting.

"We welcome in our midst a new participant to our favorite game of war." An orange haired man announced, the voice was deep and despite sounding authoritative the voice was dull, unhinged. "Declare your intentions in joining us." The voice continued.

Itachi tuned everything out and locked his eyes on the apparent leader "Growth occurs when one goes beyond one's limits, I am here to find those limits." Itachi told them, his voice once again not revealing his true feelings, his true reasoning's.

"I see." The orange haired man said. "You will be tested now. Sasori feel free to take the honors." And with a wave of his hand he motioned for the test to start.

"Let's do this quickly." the hunchbacked person said in a huff.

Itachi directed his scrutinizing gaze to the hunchbacked ninja raising his hand he pointed towards the puppet master. "_You_ will be my opponent?" Itachi asked condescendingly knowing he already won the fight.

"Hnn, do not speak in that tone to me!" Sasori commanded, opening his mouth to launch his attack, hundreds of poisoned needles erupted from said opening and rushed towards the Uchiha.

Itachi however did not move a muscle. "A chakra construct such as yourself stands no chance when facing me. I have won." Itachi said lifting the genjutsu he had placed Sasori under.

Only now the puppet master noticed that the poisoned needles he thought he had fired were still within his puppet's mouth. The chakra strings he had controlled only mere moments ago were not there anymore and the only reason he was not dead was because that Uchiha had not stopped his chakra heart.

'To have control over my chakra to such an extent by just using a genjutsu!' Sasori thought to himself. 'I could've died here…' the man realized before promising himself that he would work on something to stop genjutsu's from affecting him to such a degree, 'perhaps if I made a shield of chakra around my chakra threads… yeah that could work if-'

"That will do." The orange haired man told Itachi. "Welcome to the Akatsuki."

Itachi nodded lazily, while inside he was sighing out of relieve.

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><p>A few weeks after having joined Akatsuki Itachi was sitting on the edge of a cliff. Itachi was drawing Kanji on a scroll. Writing on scrolls was not something that was thought to be suspicious to anyone, but Itachi knew that if anyone other than his 'correspondent' would read this he was in for a very nasty surprise. One does not mingle with criminals without knowing what to expect when you betray them.<p>

And even though betrayal was something Itachi was very close with, it was also something he was very careful with. Betray the wrong person and it will not only hurt the other but yourself as well.

Betraying his own clan was something that had hurt him more than anything that had ever happened to him.

To think that he had killed his own parents, that he had held a drawn sword at the necks of countless family members was something that was eating him from the inside out, the guilt was more than he had expected. More than he should have been able to bear.

But bear it he did for the future of Konoha, for the future of his younger brothers.

His younger brothers, Sasuke and Haru… Such innocent children. Such innocent lifes. He had destroyed all that when he had accepted the mission to kill every single enemy of Konoha. He had not expected that Danzo would betray him by ordering the death of all the other Uchiha as well.

Yes betrayal was something he was very familiar with.

Even though he had done it all out of loyalty, it still felt so wrong. He had killed his own blood. Killed the mother of his brothers, killed the fathers of countless innocent children. Was the safety of the villagers of Konoha worth the death of his clan. Had he chosen wisely?

In the end it didn't really matter, he had made sure of that.

He had always known that Sasuke wanted to be better than him and the curse of the Uchiha would bloom inside of that young boy. His thirst for battle, for revenge on those who wronged him was something that Itachi had seen within the boy ever since he had first looked into his eyes. Sasuke would end his life, end his suffering.

The only way that his plans would fail would be if somehow Haru got between him and Sasuke. The boy's eyes were so kindhearted. So pure. Itachi did not know if it was because of the green hue of the small boy's eyes but he was sure that Haru's eyes, were eyes that did not belong in the Uchiha clan. Eyes that knew how to forgive, eyes that held more than just lust for battle.

Not only that but the boy itself was something that somehow made Itachi hope for true atonement of his clan. The boy was so much wiser than a child should be. He had known it from the first moment he had looked at his baby brother.

Somehow Haru had figured out what was going to happen that dreadful night. He had seen the understanding in Haru's eyes, he had already been forgiven before he had even acted by the very boy he had betrayed so thoroughly. If Haru was going to influence Sasuke, which Itachi was sure he would do, than perhaps he did not need Sasuke to kill him…

But first he had to atone for his actions by sacrificing his own free will in order to protect the tree. Just as he had done for the entirety of his ninja-career and so he wrote more about what he had found out about the mysterious organization called Akatsuki.

* * *

><p>"Uchiha Itachi." A hissing voice called out from behind him. Itachi did not have to turn around to know which person that voice belonged to.<p>

"Orochimaru." Itachi greeted the snakelike man.

"It seems that as from this moment on you will be my partner within Akatsuki." Orochimaru said licking his lips with his tongue.

"That comes as no surprise." Itachi responded. The very sight of this man sending shivers down his spine, this man had obviously become as much of a human as Sasori was. but Itachi knew that if it ever came to a fight… He would win.

His confidence stemmed from the fact that ever since he had gained kaleidoscope eyes he had known, somehow, that he could use three jutsu's of immense power. Somehow he knew how to use these Jutsu's without having ever tried them it was as if they were imprinted in his brains, part of his instinct.

"Was there a reason you came all this way to announce that?" Itachi asked, standing up and straightening his new cloak.

"Ku ku ku, no reason to be so short with me, Itachi-kun" Orochimaru said. "I have a very good reason to come here. You're coming with me on a mission." The man told Itachi. "We have been ordered to take care of a certain… associate of ours."

Itachi touched his ring and looked at the Kanji engraved in it, scarlet, the ring of blood. Perhaps the most appropriate ring for him. "Anything else?" Itachi asked of Orochimaru.

"Hmm, no our leader did not give us any other specifics only a name and a reason…" Orochimaru smirked as he stalled his answer. "We are ordered to take care of Konoha's Rin. It appears that she has angered the wrong kind of ninja, she has killed one of our leader's mercenaries."

"I will be ready to go on this mission in a day, I have some business to attend to." Itachi said before body flickering away and leaving behind an aggravated Sannin.

* * *

><p>Itachi had been running the entire night. Tomorrow would mark his first mission against a Konoha ninja and Itachi knew one thing about going up against Konoha ninja. They were never alone.<p>

_**/flashback/**_

It had been weeks since he had been made an Anbu-trainee. It was an honor shared with only the best of the best. Itachi had been assigned a new team in which he was named Weasel. His team-captain dog had been drilling him ever since he had joined.

By now Itachi knew every tactic an Anbu team had and every code word that had ever been used by a Konoha ninja, the word 'fish' would never have the same meaning to him ever again.

Today would mark the last day of his Anbu rookie training and he would be allowed to work as an Anbu.

"Today…" Dog-senpai started, "I will teach you the last but perhaps most important of lessons an Anbu trainee is taught." Itachi looked up at the white masked Anbu captain. Dog was one of the best Anbu Konoha had produced in its recent years. The man was agile and there was not a ninja alive in this village barr the Hokage that could move as swift in the shadows without being seen.

To have been allowed to be trained under this man was one of the biggest honors Itachi had ever been privy to.

"Today marks the day that you will be taught about the tree of Konoha." Itachi's fellow trainee's all nodded while Itachi wondered what this lesson entailed. "This is a lesson that cannot be taught by someone who has not lived through a battle." Dog-senpai said, his voice low and soft but his words were clear and the meaning behind them even more so.

"Konoha is the tree that protects all that is under its foliage. Every twig of the mighty tree is protected by another branch. There is no force powerful enough to take down every twig before it is destroyed by the other branches." Dog preached. The words struck Itachi/

'Every ninja protects those who are of Konoha… Is that what it means to be a ninja of Konoha?' Itachi pondered. 'The clan had always put the clan first. But was the clan more important than the entirety of Konoha?'

"As Anbu you all will be part of the protection that Konoha offers its habitants."

* * *

><p>Throwing kunai at the ninja in front of him Itachi was sure that he was going to get killed if he so much as blinked at the wrong time. The other ninja was simply too overwhelming. His genjutsu probes seemed to just bounce off the enemy's lightning armor. The kunai and shuriken didn't seem to be of much help either. And with his left arm crushed the way it was now it seemed that all he could do was try to survive for as long as possible.<p>

Itachi's sharingan could see the giant iron fist closing in on him but he was not fast enough to evade such an assault. Hoping that the hit would only scrape him Itachi darted to the left but his sharingan told him that it would be futile. This punch would crack his skills and that would be the end of him.

One more inch and his life would be forfeit. All his years of training himself. Of being conditioned into becoming the perfect ninja had resulted in his survival up till now.

Half an inch before his brains would be squashed under the overwhelming force of this ninja's punch. Itachi could see flashes of his youth before his eyes. He was surely going to die now.

However his sharingan could see that the in lightning covered fist stopped moving when it was only a quarter of an inch away from him, blood was currently dripping out of his enemy's mouth and he could see a in lightning covered hand sticking out of the man's throat.

With a sickening sound the hand was slowly pulled out of the now dead man's neck while blood poured out of the ninja. An endless stream of blood seemed to pool around the corpse of his would-be killer.

Looking up he saw the mask of his team-captain. "Thank you, Dog-ue." Itachi said while trying to catch his breath.

"No problem. You would have done the same for me, now let's get you patched up. That arm looks like it is about to fall off." The dog-masked man said jovially.

_**/end flashback/**_

Walking into storehouse that had been supplying to the Uchiha clan since it had been named thus Itachi was bombarded with countless shurikens. Well countless to the normal ninja. With the aid of his sharingan he could easily see that there were a total of nine hundred forty-three shurikens on their way to impale him, only seventy-two would hit a fatal spot if they were to reach him. However it never came to that. For where only a moment ago Uchiha Itachi had stood now was a flock of crows. The crows, when impaled, seemed to melt into the air. After the barrage of shuriken had stopped Uchiha Itachi appeared in front of the very woman who had thrown every single one of them.

Placing his hand on hers he stopped her from attacking him out-right.

"You have a lot of guts coming here!" the woman spat at Itachi. "To think that for decades I've been helping your family with their ninja-tools and you in one night kill over eighty percent of my customers!" The woman was seeing red and if it was not for the fact that Itachi was preventing her from attacking she would have done just that.

"I am not here to discuss what is in the past." Itachi said coldly. "I am here to purchase new kunai and other basic weapons." He said, letting go of the woman and walking towards a single demon-windmill shuriken. "I want eight of those… the special ones." He stated as if the woman had not just thrown an army's worth of shuriken at him just mere minutes ago.

"Of course…" the woman said as she started to seal away the weaponry Itachi requested. "What is the deal with the cloak, Itachi… I did not know you were into that kind of people." She looked at Itachi with sad eyes. "I remember you walking in here when you were just this big." She said hold her hand next to her hip.

Itachi just looked at her with a blank stare.

"I always thought you were the peaceful kind." The cat-lady mused out loud. "To think you would be the one to take so many lives of your own kin. I can't believe it!"

Sealing away the last smoke-bombs she gave Itachi his nine scrolls. "Want anything else?" she asked.

"No that is all." Itachi said while procuring his wallet and taking out a few notes. "You will find that this will cover more than just these tools… I .." Itachi gave the money to the smaller woman and turned around.

"Am sorry…" she heard as the boy in front of her disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Cheh, Little Itachi… I wonder what your reasons were." She mused out loud before putting the money in her left pocket and laughing. "I would've given you the discount if only you had asked for the price, you silly boy."

* * *

><p>Itachi was sitting in one of the many trees that gave a view at the great walls of Konoha. The walls he had always helped to protect. If things were to play out as he suspected them to, one day he might have to help tear these walls down. Though it would be a day he hoped would never come.<p>

The moon was obscured by clouds and thus the night was at its darkest making it easy for Itachi to remain unseen while torturing himself by watching the village he would never be able to set a foot in peace in anymore.

All of his friends, comrades and remaining family thought him to be a cold-hearted killer. And in a sense they were right. He had killed many in cold blood but that dreadful night, each kill had set his blood on fire, had killed a peace of himself as well.

Yet even after all the deaths that had occurred within the large walls of Konoha, Itachi knew that the tree that was Konoha, even in desperate times like these would not fall.

Hopping down on the ground, Itachi went back to the Akatsuki hideout to meet his new 'partner' Orochimaru.

Itachi understood the reasoning behind this match-up. Where he was stealthy and preferred to use assassin style like attacks, Orochimaru did things theatrically.

He had seen the Sannin before he had defected, the man was a genius. Leveling entire battlefields with his summons and widespread elemental jutsu's. The man was a powerhouse that could take enormous amounts of damage without sporting any wounds.

The Sannin would be the perfect distraction for the more hidden attacks Itachi would make. But their next assignment was to Kill Rin.

Rin was perhaps one of the most skilled Kunoichi in Konoha's current ranks. She'd been part of Anbu at one point and Itachi had even been in her team once. She was not someone to underestimate. He had seen how effective she used the earth around her. The ability to not only attack but also defend with her element of choice was something that was on the level of the highest jounin.

Itachi was sure that as a team they could kill her without a lot of problems if it was a two on one fight. But if that woman had any back-up she could prove to be a bigger problem than most.

And that was only thinking about her elemental attacks. The kunoichi also was a very skilled medic, rivaling the talent possessed by the Senju Princess.

Allowing himself one more glance at the proud walls of Konoha, Itachi darted away.

* * *

><p>Itachi was standing in the entrance of the Akatsuki hideout. "So are you finally ready to depart? " Orochimaru asked while he was reading a scroll.<p>

"Yes." Itachi responded curtly. He really did not like this man.

"Then let's not waste any more time just hanging around now shall we?" the snakelike man said before swallowing the scroll and cracking his neck.

Before long both Akatsuki members were quietly walking the forests of the land of fire.

"I will leave the task of luring her out of the village to you, Orochimaru." Itachi said while not sparing the man a single glance.

Orochimaru grinned at this; opening his mouth he made a gurgling sound before taking out a dark red scroll. "Luring out little Rin should be no problem. All I need to do is request for medical aid and a guarding mission in one." Orochimaru said with a slight hiss. "And before we know it, she will come here with her little genin team."

Itachi looked up at this. He had not been aware of the fact she had gotten herself a genin team. New information that needed to be processed carefully. "Genin team? Consisting of whom?" Itachi asked, dreading the answer.

"Ku ku ku, Itachi-kun. Wouldn't you like to know?" Orochimaru teased taking small card out of his inner pockets.

Itachi turned his head towards the Snake-sannin. "Answer the question, Orochimaru." Itachi demanded in the same emotionless voice as he had used since the start of his Akatsuki employment.

"Well, let's see shall we. In rookie team twelve there are a total of four ninja." Orochimaru said slowly, taking his time to pronounce every syllable. "The highest ranked jounin is of course our precious little Rin." He said smirking. "Then there are three little genin, one of them is a Hyuuga. Yuugi is her name, and according to these stats... hmmm. She seems to be quite advanced for a genin." After saying this he remained silent for a few seconds.

"Yes… Then there is the Aburame, Koh, quite a good match with the Hyuuga, yes Sarutobi-sensei must have been trying to recreate _that_ golden duo again." Orochimaru started to laugh now. "And ohh, look at this, the third member of her little team. Oh how surprising, to think that Sarutobi-sensei would put him in such a team."

Itachi started to get irritated, dreading the answer he hoped that Haru had yet to pass the genin exam. "Well the third member seems to be none other than, Uchiha Haru."

"Then we will have no problems killing Rin, Those three are not strong enough to pose a serious problem." Itachi said, carefully wording his sentence.

"Hmm, yes, yes. But you see this Uchiha boy. Your brother, he seems to be something interesting." Orochimaru licked his lips. "He was rookie of the year. Not only that, but has set a new record on his genin exam."

Itachi did not know if he was happy to hear his little brother had done so well or if he should be worried. And so he decided to be both.

"I have other plans for Uchiha Haru, we shall merely kill Rin." He said in a serious tone, before running away.

"Ku ku ku, yes of course, Itachi-kun. I think we all have other plans for that set of eyes." Orochimaru whispered before he too started to run, preparing for the assassination of one jounin and two genin and if he was lucky one Akatsuki member.

* * *

><p>Harry was lying on his back in pain. He had been too late to block Yuugi palm thrust. "Get up Uchiha Wonder, that can't be all the punishment your body can handle." The girl said, sounding out of breath.<p>

"I guess I got the wrong memo, I thought we were training… not torturing each other." Harry said, getting up. Taking the time to collect his chakra he concentrated most of it in his hands. In the week prior to this training session his sensei Rin had taught him the basics of healing jutsu.

Harry was surprised by how complicated it was. He remembered that healing spells like 'Episky' were actually quite easy but using the mystic palm technique was quite tasking.

First he had to gather his chakra in his palm, and then he had to make it so it was devoid of any feelings. Which sounded so much easier than that it actually was. Before he had been able to heal even a tiny scratch on a fish he had killed eight of them, dinner that night had been delicious.

But now that he was able to convert his chakra into emotionless chakra he was able to heal the bruising that was starting to form on his chest before his own body healed it subconsciously. It took a few seconds, seconds he would not have in real battle, but it healed perfectly.

"I am ready for round twelve, let's see if we can make ten – two now shall we?" Harry taunted the Hyuuga. She had been a right horror to train with. She did not hold back which was good but she also tended to take things way to personal.

"By the end of this round, you will be eating dirt!" Yuugi yelled.

Once again activating his sharingan Harry darted forward ready to use a roundhouse kick. Harry knew he had to work on his speed and raw power when it came to tai-jutsu, it was for that reason his sensei, Rin had paired him with Yuugi who needed to train her preciseness. And with an opponent like Harry, who could see her movements before she even thought of them she needed to be as precise as possible less she missed and got kicked instead.

From the sidelines Rin was watching, she had been training these genin for quite some time now and she was feeling rather proud. After the fake mission all three genin seemed to take things more seriously than before, training more than even she asked of them. And because they invested so much time in their training, so did she.

Currently, one of her bunshin was working with Koh, the boy seriously lacked in his tai-jutsu and though it was not truly needed for his fighting style the boy needed a second tactic if his bugs were to become futile.

"You need to lower your left arm a bit more Yuugi, you can't hit Harry like that." She screamed at her student. Yes being a teacher was very fulfilling, not only could she help the next generation into becoming fine shinobi she could also get rid of all her frustrations and call it training.

Harry stopped his roundhouse kick mid spin and decided to use a right arm uppercut instead, effectively hitting Yuugi's jaw. After an audible crack resounded Harry rushed over to her. "Stay still, don't move. I will get Rin-sensei to heal you!" But before Harry had even finished his sentence Rin was already sitting on the ground next to Yuugi.

"You actually knocked her out while breaking her jaw. That is some serious improvement Harry." Rin said while Harry looked at her as if he saw water burning. "What?" she asked incredulously.

"Yuugi is unconscious, with a broken jaw and all you do is congratulate me?" Harry asked, becoming very aware that this was not his own world, but a world filled with ninja, this was normal. "I thought you would at least tell me I was the best student you had ever had." Harry finished hoping it didn't sound too arrogant.

"Hah! You sure are kiddo. You sure are." Rin said, laughing loudly. "Now, give me a minute and I will patch her up and we will call it a day." She said, her tone suddenly serious as her hands started to glow green.

* * *

><p>Yuugi was sitting on the porch of the intermediate-level dojo. Yesterday had marked the day she had been beaten ten times by a four year old boy. He had even broken her jaw thus knocking her unconscious<p>

How could she ever become a strong kunoichi if she was beaten by a snot-nosed Uchiha only one-third her age?

Deciding that sitting on the porch was not going to do any good she went inside and got into her Jyuuken stance.

"You have been training a lot the past few weeks. Is there something you want to share with me, Yuugi." She heard her grandmother say. Looking behind her she saw the woman that had been such a huge part of her life up to now.

Holding up her hands she looked down. "These hands, they are useless." She muttered. "My eyes can see exactly where to strike, I can see it clearly yet I fail to be precise or fast enough to actually do something."

Coming closer the elderly looking woman placed both her hands on Yuugi's and with a blast of chakra she pushed them away. "The power of your Byakugan and Jyuuken lies not only in the tenketsu points." She explained.

Yuugi looked up at this.

"The greatest power of our Jyuuken and byakugan lies within the power of our chakra. The strongest Jyuuken user is not the one that knows where exactly to strike but knows how hard to strike and with what amount of chakra, watch." Yuugi's grandmother walked back and placed three bricks on the ground. "Hit these bricks as you would hit a tenketsu point." She commanded.

Yuugi walked forward and with a quick palm thrust she managed to crack the upper most brick. "Not bad." Her grandmother complimented. "Now look at what happens when I utilize my tenketsu points, making them smaller while thrusting out the same amount of chakra as you just did." She said while replacing the cracked brick and placing a top five new ones.

Yuugi could see her grandmother gathering the same amount of chakra as she had, and with a quick strike on top of the upper brick she saw that not only did the brick crack, it actually split in two. And so did the seven bricks under that brick and not even the floor was spared as it splintered.

"That is the power of your Jyuuken Yuugi." The elderly woman said. "Now show me what you have learned by watching that." her grandmother placed a total of eight new bricks on the floor.

"I will be back at midnight. Show me you have improved and then tell me those hands are useless." The woman said.

With renewed hope Yuugi started to collect her chakra.

* * *

><p>"After a day of rest, Yuugi, I hope you are ready to defeat little Harry." Rin said while Harry narrowed his eyes at their sensei.<p>

"I'll let you know that I am probably the tallest four year old you'll ever see!" Harry said angrily, tired of being called small or little.

"Only because you walk upright…" Rin whispered as she backed away. "Get in your stances. Yuugi, do not forget your left arm, it needs to be lower than your right." Looking at Harry she continued "Harry, try to evade by other means than just falling back one step."

Standing still Harry decided that this time he would let Yuugi initiate. Seeing the girl in question moving Harry activated his sharingan and could clearly see what she was planning to do, a clear palm thrust to his kidney, something that could do serious damage if he let her.

Deciding to follow Rin-sensei's advice instead of falling back to evade her Harry stumbled forward and fell planting himself face down on the ground, not seeing the raised eye-brows of both Yuugi and Rin. Harry saw Yuugi's feet coming closer and when she was about to reach him Harry used the jutsu he had seen Rin do a few days earlier and he disappeared under the ground using the copies mole jutsu while using a shadow clone as a distraction.

The shadow clone tried to stand up but was easily destroyed by a palm thrust of Yuugi creating a smoke screen. After noticing that Harry had escaped her Yuugi activated her Byakugan and began to search the training ground but she could not see the other genin.

'Not left, not right, not behind more or in front of me… he must be above me!' Yuugi thought as she focused on watching above her not noticing that Harry had taken hold of legs.

Pulling Yuugi into the earth he had successfully entombed her. Holding a kunai to Yuugi's face Harry happily declared his first win of the day.

"That was an excellent strategy Harry." Rin commentated. "Yuugi you can see all around you, don't just use your Byakugan to look at the obvious, look at the places one wouldn't expect an enemy to be as well." Rin adviced the Hyuuga.

"Of course." Yuugi said gritting her teeth.

A minute later, when she had gotten herself out of the earth she once again dropped into her Jyuuken stance. This time narrowing her tenketsu, ready to demolish the little runt in front of her.

Harry once again was just standing still with an activated sharingan. And once again Yuugi initiated by dashing forward, however before she was in striking distance of Harry she directed an open palm thrust towards Harry, the latter being swooped from the ground and thrown at a tree.

Harry's body ached but he stood up. Yuugi had not shown to be capable of such a thing before. "Have you been training without us?" Harry asked while walking back toward Yuugi.

"Let's just say I had a rush course in advanced Jyuuken." Yuugi said smirking.

Meanwhile Rin was clapping her hands "Well done, well done. That was a vacuum palm if I ever seen one! Now you two, please be so kind to just spar with each other without destroying the training field." Rin said pointing at the tree that was currently breaking in two.

Harry nodded in affirmation while Yuugi just kept staring at Harry. "Lets even the playfield shall we?" Harry asked, a grin becoming apparent on his face. However Harry once again was just standing still with an activated sharingan. And once again Yuugi initiated by dashing forward, however before she was in striking distance of Harry she directed an open palm thrust towards Harry who disappeared with a soft pop only to reappear behind Yuugi, holding a kunai at her neck.

At this sight Rin's eyes widened while Yuugi just stood there frozen. Koh however just kept focusing on his own training and didn't see the importance of Harry's fast movement.

"I call that move my very own body popper." Harry said mischievously taking hold of Yuugi's arm both disappeared with a soft pop.

Rin could only stare at what had just happened. Not in her wildest dreams could she have thought that one of her students would ever be capable of such a transportation technique. She could feel a faint chakra signature above her, so looking up she saw the falling bodies of two of her genin.

* * *

><p>"We are now one hundred meter above the ground." Harry yelled. "I'll bring you back down safely if you admit I won this round." He offered, however Yuugi was having none of that and pushed Harry away.<p>

The ground was getting awfully close and now that she didn't have Harry holding on to her, capable of bringing her down safely she started to panic. Wind was rushing through her hair and with her byakugan activated she could see the horror that was etched on her sensei's face while she was freefalling.

Only twelve more meters and she would be squashed to death however an idea came to her as she gather her chakra in her palm and released a steady stream of it, slowing down her fall. Her byakugan enabling her to see that her chakra was not only slowing her down but also cushioning her fall.

As she only had three more meter to go she heard another pop and was grabbed by the shoulder y Harry, who then popped again and laid her safely on the ground. However though she was safe, Harry was not as Rin came stomping towards them, a fist ready to punch Harry for his stunt. "Are you absolutely mental, Uchiha Haru. Get here and I will knock some sense into you!" the furious looking Rin was shouting.

"Uhmm, I am taking my break… I should be back in half an hour after enjoying a well-deserved lunch so you will have time to calm down." Harry said before popping away. Leaving behind one angry jounin, one angry genin and one still training Aburame.

* * *

><p>It had been one week since Harry had shown he was capable of, as he had dubbed it, Body popping. And while His sensei was not angry anymore, Yuugi had not let him get near her as to prevent him from grabbing her and 'popping' away. Koh however had asked Harry to let him enjoy a free-fall as well, which the Aburame enjoyed thoroughly after using his insects to float in the air.<p>

"Come on, Yuugi… it is about to you forgive me for popping you like that…" Harry said the twelfth time hoping the girl would get over her problem and just be normal again.

"I am not mad that you, as you so politely call it, popped me. But you upstaged me, again!" Yuugi yelled at him. "I worked two full days on that technique and you just could not take it that _I_ was in the spotlight could you?" She screamed. "No, the Uchiha-wonder just had to do something even more amazing! You just… AARGH!" Yuugi screamed while making wild hand movements.

Harry just stood there impassively waiting until she stopped screaming and making erratic movements. "So, now that you finally got that out of the way, are you ready to act normal again." Harry said in the tone that had always worked so well on him when Hermione used it.

Yuugi's eyes seemed to narrow at that condescending tone "yes." She said folding her arms.

"Good, because I have missed my sparring partner, you are a really good kunoichi Yuugi, don't measure your worth with my standards, measure them with your own." Harry told her.

* * *

><p>Standing in the office of the Hokage, team twelve was ready to take a new mission, since the disaster of a mission that had resulted in a clash with the mercenaries they had only taken D-ranked mission and while Harry was glad he was going on an actual mission again he also dreaded the experience.<p>

The hokage, who was sitting in his chair, was going through the mission requests looking for an appropriate mission that would fir the team. "Ah yes… " The hokage said while reading a mission request.

"Yes this mission will do just fine. You four, for this mission, will be aided by another jounin. The mission is relatively simple but I don't want to risk things after what happened last time." the old man said while the three genin looked at each other with riddled gazes.

'Another jounin… that is quite a lot of extra back-up for only a c-ranked mission.' Harry thought but didn't voice the questions that were plaguing his thoughts.

"What does this mission entail, Hokage-sama?" Rin asked politely.

"You will be going to border between the land of fire and Suna, there the three of you." The hokage said, looking at the three genin "and the back-up jounin will guard an envoy that has been attacked by some farmers while you," the hokage said looking the Rin "will tend to the wounded within the envoy."

"We accept this mission, hokage-sama." Rin said, speaking for her entire team.

"Good, your back-up will meet you halfway, at the Waterfall bridge at the start of the great river, understood?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong>

Oooh, a lot of big things are about to happen! Let me know in a review what you though of this chapter, I am curious.


	19. Facing the dignified cold part 2

**AN: **After reading this chapter, please take the time to read my Harry Potter one-shot (one last glance), I believe it to be quite funny.

**Title explanation**; The weasel = Itachi, the snake = Orochimaru and 'the dignified cold' is a rough translation of Rin.

Please enjoy this chapter, it was hard to write this chapter because I wanted to make sure that I left behind enough clues about future events without revealing too much (which I probably did anyway)…

* * *

><p><strong>chapter 18: The weasel and the snake facing the dignified cold part 2.<strong>

Harry was standing with his feet in the ice-cold river. It was one of the few things he disliked about traveling as a ninja; he had no access to a properly heated water supply in which he could bath himself. Currently his team was sleeping while he was standing as night-guard.

After bathing himself in the ice-cold water Harry decided to try out something he had wanted to for a while. Activating his sharingan he used a few doton jutsu's to create a large stone room around the area in which his team was sleeping, to make sure they would not get wounded by him while he was experimenting.

"Mangekyou sharingan" Harry whispered as his sharingan started to change patterns.

* * *

><p>Yuugi had been sleeping for the better part of the night when she woke up at feeling a sense of doom, she activated her Byakugan to scan her surroundings and she noticed that she was no longer surrounded by just a forest but also by large stone walls.<p>

Outside of the walls she could see her team-mate, the insufferable Uchiha prodigy. She could see that the boy was sitting on the ground while some sort of chakra construct was forming around him. But before she could take a closer look at it the chakra vanished while Harry turned around and seemed to look straight at her, even though his should be obstructed by the tent that she was lying in and 'protected' by the stone walls that surrounded the tent. Yuugi could see that Harry's eyes were radiating chakra, it looked so bright and intense, it looked nothing like how his sharingan normally looked when activated. It was almost as if the chakra was luring her to keep watching the bright orbs.

Standing up Yuugi without awakening Rin or Koh she got out of the tent and walked through a crack in the stone walls, her eyes focused on the bright chakra that was still being emitted from Harry's eyes.

"You should sleep; it is still my shift for night-guard-duty." Harry said, deactivating his Mangekyou sharingan.

Snapping out of her trance-like state Yuugi ignored Harry's comment and in a tone that made clear she would not back down asked "What were you doing just now, your eyes… they were so different?"

Harry sighed and walked up a tree, Yuugi followed him and they sat down on one of its branches. "I guess you could call it my burden." He said "It is nothing you need to concern yourself with."

Yuugi looked at her teammate, she really disliked how easy everything came to him, but despite all her verbal teasing and their arguments she had grown to sort of like the kid. Never before had she seen him like this, he looked almost guilty of something. "It is something I must concern myself with." Yuugi said deactivating her own bloodline limit "You're my teammate, I am supposed to be concerned about you."

Harry stayed silent. Yuugi was sure that Harry would share whatever it was… all he needed was time and so she stayed silent and waited for the smaller genin to start talking.

"Unlike the Byakugan which is bestowed upon its practitioners the day they are born the Sharingan is supposed to be gained in battle." Harry started, looking down at the stone walls he had erected earlier. "However when I was born I already had a fully awakened sharingan." Harry said, causing Yuugi to gasp, but still remaining silent otherwise.

"There are three stages of the sharingan; most of the world assume they are signified by the tomoe in our sharingan. That assumption is false." Harry told Yuugi. "My clan was a clan of bloodshed, you have to understand this, my clans' history is drenched in blood of not only our enemies but also of our brothers and friends." Harry took a moment of silence to organize his thoughts. "The truth is that a fully awakened sharingan is merely the first stage of the sharingan." Harry explained, turning his head around and looking Yuugi in the eyes with his sharingan fully activated. "The first stage is powerful, powerful enough for my clan to have survived through many wars. Yet the three tomoed sharingan's power pales in comparison to the second stage." Harry said closing his eyes.

"The second stage of the sharingan, gained in the most gruesome of ways allows an Uchiha to fully make use of our clan's darkest secrets." Opening his eyes, Yuugi no longer saw the beautiful green eyes Harry normally had, nor did she see the blood red three tomoed sharingan, no what she saw were black and red eyes. Harry's eyes showed her a circle encased by a triangle with six black lines dividing the spaces between the triangle points. "The second stage is called the Mangekyou sharingan, I gained mine when… when I let my family be killed." Harry said, a lone tear falling down.

Yuugi had never heard Harry talk about the night his family had been killed; she had not thought he had felt guilty about it. But what could Harry have done, he was only a three year old boy while Itachi had been a Anbu commander. Forgetting to ask what the third stage entailed she decided to comfort her teammate "It's not your fault though Harry. No one should expect you to have been able to do anything, not even you." Yuugi said, knowing what it felt like to feel responsible for the death of a family member.

* * *

><p>Harry, with his Mangekyou sharingan activated looked at the girl sitting on his left. "I could have prevented the entire massacre from happening if only… if only…" Harry said starting to get angry was he not supposed to have gotten over this yet. However Yuugi did not know how deeply Harry had betrayed his family for the greater good, and it opened wounds he thought has healed. "I should have stopped Itachi, the entire massacre was wrong!" Harry said, raising his voice and standing up ready to jump of the branch and giving in to the urge to destroy something, to hurt something as much as he was hurting. However before he could jump down two arms suddenly wrapped around him.<p>

"It is in the past, Harry. Even if it feels like those wounds are still bleeding so much you feel like you're bleeding to death you won't. Because the wounds will heal, with time all wounds heal." Yuugi whispered in Harry's ear, repeating the wisdom shared with her by her grandmother all those years ago.

Harry wanted to tell her that she was wrong, wanted to scream out how wrong she was but all he did was hug her back.

* * *

><p>"How much further is it, Rin-sensei?" Yuugi asked.<p>

"It shouldn't be long now; I believe our meeting point should be just behind that hill." Rin answered, pointing into the distance.

* * *

><p>Rin-sensei, how much further is it?" Yuugi asked after they had walked past the hill that Rin had pointed out earlier.<p>

"It shouldn't be long now; I believe our meeting point should be just over that bridge there." Rin answered, pointing in the distance.

* * *

><p>"Rin-sensei…" Yuugi said agitated. "How much further is it?"<p>

Rin looked on her map, and kept rotating it. "Well… I believe it should be on the other side of this mountain." She said while rubbing her chin.

"We are lost, aren't we? Rin-sensei." Koh asked.

"I would not say lost per se." Rin said before chuckling guiltily "I would prefer to say that sometimes the destination is not as important as the journey." Rin said nodding sagely.

"In other words; we're lost." Harry said, snatching the map out of Rin's hands. Looking at the map he saw the mountain they were now standing in front of. "It actually is on the other side of this mountain." Harry said, slightly amazed.

"See, we were not lost!" Rin pompously exclaimed while walking onward.

* * *

><p>Finally arriving at the meeting point team twelve sat down on the large boulders that were spread around the field.<p>

"So… this is the place that witnessed the biggest slaughter of the last ninja world war." Harry said with a look of disdain apparent on his face. Standing on a large boulder allowing the wind to play with his hair Harry remembered what he had read about that battle, it had been completely one-sided as soon as the fourth hokage had arrived.

Harry had read about this battle and many others in the history books that his clan had held. With old age came boredom and Harry, in his old life, had acquired the strange hobby of reading books to pass the time, and learn more about the origins of magic and the three deathly hallows.

"This is where the fourth hokage took out three hundred ninja, yes." Rin said, looking at the with boulders filled grass field. "The border with Iwa used to be marked by the giant river." Rin pointed at the horizon. "We will wait here until our back-up has arrived, it shouldn't take long."

* * *

><p>After the back-up had arrived they fastened their pace and ran to where the envoy would be waiting for them.<p>

The back-up had been a jounin by the name of Hatake Kakashi, the jounin had most of his face hidden from view which made Harry wondering what was underneath all that fabric.

It didn't take long before they had reached their destination and were met by the sight of a small traveling village. Running towards them was a brown haired man.

"Welcome, welcome and thank you for arriving this soon." The man said humbly

"It was no problem, sir." Rin answered "Please show me where the wounded are so I can tend to them as soon as possible."

"Of course." The man turned around and yelled for a red headed girl to come "Tayuya, show this lady where the wounded are being held." The girl nodded and quietly motioned for Rin to follow her.

"You four are the guards I presume?" the brown haired man asked.

Kakashi took the lead and nodded "that is correct, could you provide us any insight into where and how they have been attacking your envoy?" he asked.

"Sure, follow me. The sun will set within an hour, so I don't they will attack anytime soon, they have mostly been bothering us in the mornings." The man told the four ninja. Walking towards the biggest covered wagon, easily as big as a small house, the man lifted a flap allowing to four ninja to enter the covered wagon.

In the middle of the wagon stood a small table, on it was a map of the area around them. "They have been coming through this pass." The man told them while planting his thick index finger on the map. "They carry pitchforks as weapons and torches; we don't stand a chance we are just peaceful merchants traveling from town to town. But we will no longer just sit idly by while they rob us every time they want to. So we hired you, a few ninja should scare them off long enough so that we can repair some of the wagons and heal the wounded and get out of this place." The man lied convincingly.

"If the four of you could guard that pass, than we will finally be able to get a good night's rest, we will start the repairing's tomorrow and hopefully leave the day after that." The man said sitting down in one of the chairs around the table.

"How many farmers and such are we talking about sir?" Harry asked, something did not feel right about this. Why would farmers attack these merchants, and rob them more than once?

"I cannot say how many precisely but it are easily more than thirty man."

"Understood, we will go to the pass now and make ourselves familiar with the place." Kakashi said, walking out of the wagon.

Following the jounin were the three genin, all of them shared a look, something was odd, they all knew it for all had seen different signs.

When they were walking towards the pass it was Koh who spoke up first. "Something does not feel right about this. The man said they were peaceful but my bugs could sense chakra inside of the man, he must have been practicing with his chakra for my kikai bugs to even sense it."

Kakashi turned around and shared his thoughts. "Some people have seen too much violence and decide to resign from aggression, it is a choice one can make and it is a choice we must respect."

"I agree, sir, however you don't think it is odd that the merchants have been plundered several times yet they have not been able to restock? Why would the farmers do that, you can't pluck feathers from a featherless chicken… it does not make sense." Harry said. "Unless they have something with them that they have been able to protect during these attacks."

Yuugi nodded told what she had observed. "I noticed that man had battle worn hands, tiny cuts and scrapes on his skin that show that he had battled, some were recent. And while it could be from defending against attackers the scrapes and such do not match pitchforks or torches, it looked more like battle scars from kunai or shuriken."

"It doesn't matter, we were hired to guard this envoy, and so we will. "Kakashi said ending the discussion. "It would not be the first time I have been hired under false pretenses, you'll learn not to ask too many questions when it comes to guarding missions, unless it are children you are guarding and they don't want to be guarded, always ask if it really are the ones that hired you are their real parents..." after this Kakashi did his best to eye-smile and let it at that.

* * *

><p>It was already deep in the night and Rin was still healing the endless stream of wounded people that had been laying in the numerous tents, some of the wounds were gruesome and the attackers clearly hadn't bothered to differentiate between the victims. She had healed children, elders, mothers and fathers and also one baby that had his belly cut open, the wound had already been in the early stages of Necrotizing fasciitis, the fact that the child would survive was a miracle on itself. she had spent so much chakra on that kid alone… Already she was working on her second soldier pill and she was not sure how much longer she could keep this up before she would collapse.<p>

To think that she was only halfway through the wounded and the sick made her decide to stop for now. She needed to regain her energy, she needed to eat a decent meal and sleep a good few hours before she could even think of working on other patients again.

It was when she was done bandaging a young man's fire-burned arm that she announced that the rest would have to wait for six more hours. Rin's eyes were heavy and she felt that as soon as she would lie down she would fall asleep.

Walking to the wagon in which she and her team had been allowed to sleep she took of her sandals and clothing and lay down, drifting into a peaceful sleep, not noticing a man with a drawn kunai entering just minutes after she had fallen asleep.

* * *

><p>Staying out on guard duty was boring, there was no other way to describe this feeling Harry thought. Perhaps this would be the best time to make adventage of his age. Walking over to the jounin in charge Harry dropped his eye-lids so that he looked half-asleep.<p>

"Hatake-sama, can I get permissi-" Harry started before forcefully letting out a yawn. "-mission to sleep a few hours."

Kakashi looked at the young boy "Of course, we shall keep guard, you go rest for now."

The silver haired jounin had hardly finished his reply or Harry had shunshined away leaving behind only a few leafs.

"I have just been tricked by a four year old, haven't I?" Kakashi said with a comical expression on his face.

"That sir, you have…"Koh said while Yuugi was stifling a laugh.

* * *

><p>It took almost half a minute before Harry reached the traveling merchants. The place was deadly quiet and Harry was sure that he would've heard it if a needle would have fallen on the ground. Deciding to look for Rin Harry walked towards the tents where Rin was going to be healing the wounded.<p>

However every tent that Harry looked inside of was empty; there was not a merchant to be found. Actually, now that Harry thought about it, he had not seen anyone since coming back, nor had he heard any of the wounded cry.

Flooding his eyes with chakra Harry activated his sharingan in the hope of seeing something out of the ordinary in the darkness of the night. Looking around he could see that there actually were a lot of people however they were not the peaceful merchants he had hoped to see.

Around the edges of the camp were dozens of ninja, some of them were carrying children and others were caging the adults.

Suddenly Harry understood why it was so silent, on the ground under some of the wagons he could see, though just barely, silencing seals. There must be a huge barrier around this place Harry thought.

Keeping a cool head the first thing Harry did was body-pop to his team.

Harry appeared, with a soft pop behind Kakashi who in turn turned around with amazing speed a kunai already in his hand.

"Something is wrong at the camp! And I can't find Rin-sensei." Harry explained as fast as he could "They, the enemy ninja have placed silencing seals around the camp, you have to come with me." Harry said grabbing Kakashi vest and body-popping to Yuugi and Koh who understood what he was planning to do and grabbed Harry by his arm as they body-popped just outside the camp.

Kakashi looked in shock at Harry but without asking for what had just happened he summoned a dog "Pakkun, can you catch Rin's scent?" he asked of the small dog.

"Of-course I can." The dog said, surprising Harry. Pakkun lifted his nose in the air and after a second or two started to run towards one of the wagons.

Arriving at the wagon they saw a man standing outside in a black cloak with red clouds. The man had long black hair and white pasty skin. At seeing the jounin and three genin arrive the man started to smile, with a few hand-seals he lifted the silencing seals that had been placed on the area. "Ku ku ku, I see you have found out, despite the elaborate precautions I placed, that something was amiss." The man said in mock sadness.

"Orochimaru… What are you doing here?" Kakashi asked

"Me, Oh let's just say that the one who hired me believes strongly in the expression : an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a ninja for a ninja." The Sannin said while tucking strands of hair behind his ear.

"Byakugan." Harry heard Yuugi whisper. Looking at his teammate he saw a look of shock and horror etched on it.

"Where is Rin!" Kakashi demanded of Orochimaru.

"so much blood…" Yuugi said in a voice filled with horror.

"Now, now, mind your manners, don't they teach you Konoha jounin any decorum these days?" he scolded while grinning maliciously.

"She's ..in..side…" Harry heard Yuugi say.

"You should have asked nicely and I would've –" Orochimaru said before Harry vanished from view with a soft pop and Kakashi darted forward with one eye closed and the other revealing a sharingan.

* * *

><p>Harry appeared inside the wagon, but the sight that met him was something that would be etched into his mind for years to come. The room was barely lit but he could clearly see the broken figure of his sensei lying on a bed, blood was on the ground, on the sheets, on the walls, it was everywhere. There was so much blood in the room that it looked as if the ceiling had been bleeding. Rin was lying on the bed her neck cut open while her head was a bloody mess, snakes were trying to swallow his sensei.<p>

His sensei

HIS sensei

HIS SENSEI

**HIS**…. **SENSEI**

And with that realization something snapped inside of Harry and mindlessly he blinked twice and got to work.

Harry pooled all his chakra into his hands and sat down beside the broken body, his pants soaking up the gallons of blood that was on the ground. The snakes, who had dispersed after Harry had knelt down had done a lot of damage, had curled around her arms and broken them, they had left bite marks on her face in preparation of their meal. But it did not matter, Harry would save her.

Green chakra, void of any feelings was radiating from his hands, radiating the entire wagon the blood that had covered the walls and floor was no longer red but an eerily looking green, the wounds that Rin was sporting were slowly closing but the dead look in her eyes remained, dead eyes that were looking at Harry, urging him to help her.

But even after depleting over half his chakra Rin was still not moving, still looked like… a corpse.

In his anguish Harry screamed, the battle that was taking place outside of wagon not interesting him in the slightest.

Harry screamed in silence, with all his power he screamed his commands at him. "Show your face! I command you! Give back her soul!" chakra was building up around Harry while time seemed to stop.

The world around Harry froze, All the lights disappeared as the world turned into darkness. A soft whisper thundered around Harry "Master…" the whisper said. Harry's neck hairs stood up straight. "You requested my presence." The whisper said.

"I did." Harry said facing the darkness and reclaiming his calmness. "I demand you to bring back the soul of Tzu Rin into her body."

For a moment everything around Harry was quiet but only a second later a raspy yet thunderous laugh could be heard, a mocking laugh. "You silly child! You think I reap the souls in this place!" the whisper said mocking Harry. "You call yourself Master of Death but you know nothing, you insolent child! You play with powers you know not."

Harry remained still at this until Death stopped his streak of insults. "Then tell me who. Who reaps the souls in this forsaken world?"

"Death." The voice said softly. "The Death of this world you have not mastered!" the voice laughed.

Minutes went by before the voice said something again. "yet." and with that final statement the darkness surrounding Harry retreated as the world around him started to spin again.

Rin was dead, and there was nothing he could do. Absolutely nothing.

Harry's eyes started to tear up, blood running down his eyes as his Mangekyou sharingan made itself known. Walking out of the wagon he was greeted by the sight a small battlefield, Yuugi and Koh were hiding behind one of the wagons while Hatake Kakashi was furiously attacking the Sannin Orochimaru with a lightning covered hand.

"Susanoo." Harry said before a huge chakra construct started to form around Harry.

Harry could feel something he had not felt in a long time, he wanted revenge so bad it hurt. He wanted to kill the man that had killed Rin. Focusing his chakra he controlled the construct that had formed around him. A huge hand took hold of Orochimaru, and Harry could feel that his revenge was close, forcing the hand to tighten around the body of the Sannin the body of the murderer of his sensei exploded in mud.

Behind Kakashi the body of Orochimaru formed again. "Ku ku ku, such bloodlust. Such magnificent eyes." Orochimaru said looking at Harry who in turn forced his way into Orochimaru's mind.

* * *

><p><em>Orochimaru activated the silencing seals he had placed earlier while Itachi hid himself. Looking around him he signaled for his men to start recapturing the pitiful creatures that were the wounded merchants. They had done their part.<em>

_His plan had worked out flawlessly; sometimes his genius mind surprised even him. Using the genjutsu powers of Itachi to make all of these people believe they were wounded by angry mobs of farmers made sure that none of the Konoha ninja would find out the truth._

_Walking into the wagon with a kunai ready in his hand he looked at the woman lying on the bed. She had completely drained her chakra reserves, she would never notice that someone was near her as long as the silencing seals were still active. So with a quick slash Orochimaru sliced through Rin's neck as blood started to rush out of her, before the girl had been able to wake up she was already dead._

_Snakes were now slowly slithering out of his robe as he mentally ordered them to clean up this body._

* * *

><p>Harry could not believe what he had seen, the man in front of him had killed without emotion, no joy or anger… there were no feelings involved. Never before had Harry witnessed something like that.<p>

"You monster!" Harry screamed out. Never before in his very long life had he ever witnessed a crime like this where the murderer didn't even feel the slightest hint of regret. Even Voldemort still felt something when he had killed countless people, he felt joy and power, but this man felt nothing.

Harry was ready to pour more chakra into his Susanoo, to utterly demolish this man. But to his shock Harry saw that Orochimaru was no longer alone.

Standing just behind Orochimaru was now standing, dressed in the same cloak as Orochimaru as if to mock him even more, his very own brother, Itachi.

"That is enough Orochimaru, we are to return." His brother's voice said coldly. Harry looked at his brother and felt all the blood leaving his face, Itachi had helped in the murder of his sensei.

Harry screamed and his Susanoo seemed to solidify, however before he could do anything, Orochimaru and Itachi seemed to disappear as they simply faded into the darkness of the night.

* * *

><p><strong>AN<strong>: she's dead. I actually did it, I killed off Rin. Below is a response to a review, I want to share this with you to explain Harry's... for lack of better words, predicament.

Xanaris; A response to your review at .net/r/7357616/

Thank you for reviewing.

Hopefully i can grant you sufficient insight about Harry so that you may understand Harry's apparent amatuerism.

-Harry seems to be a ridiculously powerful person with a mind of a child.

Ahh, you caught the bull right by it's horns. It is true, i cannot deny that Harry has been infuriatingly naïve at moments. the reason for that is that Harry's mind which is several centuries old is housed in a four year old's body which limits him greatly, there are certain things a four year old's brain simply cannot do yet, it needs time to grow and mature. The way i see it, Harry is making the best of his situation right now with the tools he has. and I don't want to spoil you too much but after the time skip you'll see the same Harry with a more mature body and will see how much that influences him and his choices.

-I'm aware that a fight between wizards and a fight between ninjas are vastly different, but not to the point that he'd become a complete amateur.

I can see what you mean, but I'm sorry to give you such a cliché for an answer; I have my reasons for that. Harry who i consider to be quite good at combat, so far has only faught with people with vastly more experience in a ninja battle and overpowering skill, however Harry has his sharingan, his intelect and not so trivial experience to fall back on, however against someone like Orochimaru that is simply not enough. Against someone like the mercenary a few chapters ago, it is simply not enough. Against someone like Neji, Yuugi or others genins/chuunins it helps him greatly.

Raw power cannot beat experience in battle. If Harry had his wand and magic he would have been able to fight on par with pein or anyone, but he doesn't. He has to use new skill sets and while he's advancing pretty damn fast it is not as fast as I, you or anyone wants it to be.


	20. A constant guest is never welcome

**AN: **Started some of the bigger plotlines, this chapter will be… a lot of things, which include but are not limited to rage-inducing plotlines... Also I am sorry for misleading you in last chapters author notes...

A big thank you to all the reviewers, Let's hope you guys review this time as well!

I am also in need of a new Beta, things, sadly, didn't work out with Xhexia... Anyone volunteering?

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><p><strong>Chapter 19; A constant guest is never welcome.<strong>

It had been a week since Rin had been killed by Orochimaru and Harry was still angry. He had failed yet again. If only he had used his legilimency on the merchants he would have found out beforehand.

Why was it that it were always his inactions that caused people to die? Ginny had died because he had not killed Lucius Malfoy fast enough. His entire Uchiha family had died because he had not stopped his father even though he had held the power to change everything.

He was too naïve, and his naivety had cost lives. Lives of people he had loved.

Harry knew he was powerful; he had the power to change everything. This new body was strong and agile; his new powers were nearly limitless. He had control over an entire world of his own, his eyes were strong.

But above all this Harry knew that his mind was perhaps his strongest weapon, but something felt off about it. He had not noticed it earlier but this week, in which he had felt so much pain and anger, he had noticed that his feelings were too intense, as if he was no longer in absolute control over it.

But Harry knew that his Occlumency walls were still standing strong, so then what could be wrong?

Harry started to meditate; taking in deep breaths he soon was able to access his conscious mind. Delving inside his consciousness was not something that Harry did often because there were a lot of risks involved, one wrong action could leave him with a crippled mind or worse.

The conscious mind was always beautiful to look at, even though Harry did not really have eyes at the moment. Bright greens and white coloured the sea of his consciousness, but Harry knew that it was not the bright green and white plane of his existence where the problem was. And so Harry delved in deeper.

White changed into grey and bright green made way for a darker shade of green, Harry knew he was hardly halfway but already his descent was slowing down exponentially but from where Harry was now he could see the pitch black orb that represented his subconscious.

After hours if not days Harry reached his deepest plane of self. Harry touched the huge black orb that was eminating a faint green light and was swallowed whole instantly as the black orb started to turn entirely red.

Traveling through his subconciousness Harry knew he had to tread with the utmost care. He had been here only twice before and both times it had looked the same, huge stone halls with walls that reached into the sky. Everywhere around him were paintings. Each painting an animated memory that was being safely protected by its frame. Then Harry noticed, that he looked like himself again. He looked like he had the day he 'died'.

Unlike last time though, Harry did not feel completely safe in these halls, despite feeling extremely comfortable in his old body. There was something here that was lurking just around the corner. Harry ran through the halls of Hogwarts, turned corner after corner but could not find whoever was present.

After what felt like almost an hour Harry stopped running and took a few moments to calm himself down. If there was someone in his subconciousness then he as the owner should be able to find him by just creating a door that would lead him there. Harry wondered why he hadn't thought of that sooner, why had he reacted as if was in panic? With his skill in occluding his mind he should have been able to keep a leveled head.

Harry focused and imagined a door appearing in front of him, and after a few seconds it did. As he opened the door, the sight of what he saw shocked him.

* * *

><p>Kakashi was kneeling before the war monument; just yesterday after a long ceremony a new name had been added to the endless list of ninja that had died while on a mission. Kakashi traced the names of his fallen friends. "Minato-sensei, Obito, I didn't protect her as I had promised I would." He said.<p>

Kakashi just sat there for hours on end while images of his friends flashed before his mind's eye. "I should have listened to those kids, they knew something was wrong yet I thought I knew better. As always I thought I knew better than anyone else. Obito what would you say about that?" Kakashi asked out loud before laughing bitterly. "You wouldn't say anything; you would just knock some sense into me wouldn't you?"

* * *

><p>Yuugi was standing in the intermediate level dojo, practicing her kata's endlessly while she had her byakugan activated.<p>

It had been almost a week ago since her sensei had died, murdered by Orochimaru. She hadn't noticed it before but in the short while that she had come to know Rin she had grown attached to her. And now it was like there was a huge void in her heart and no matter what people around her said, no matter how many condolences she was offered she couldn't fill that gaping hole.

If only she had used her byakugan to check up on her sensei. If only she had offered to assist Rin-sensei she might have been able to do something. But as always she had only been able to arrive after the murder had taken place.

Her eyes were hurting; the strain of having her byakugan activated this long was taking its toll. But Yuugi knew she had try to keep her byakugan up just a little more, she had to become stronger or she would never be able to do anything, and being unable to do anything was unacceptable.

Yuugi kept going through her Kata's until she fell unconscious because of the strain of her byakugan.

Slowly the door slid open and an elderly woman walked in, she had a sad look engraved on her face and her wrinkles betrayed her worry. "Rest, my sweet Yuugi. The pain will fade eventually even if it feels like it won't, time will heal any wound." And with having said that she picked Yuugi up and carried her away.

* * *

><p>Koh was sitting in his room with a scroll opened in his lap. While he normally didn't overtly show emotions that didn't mean he didn't experience them. The death of his sensei had been a big blow to Koh, never before had he lost anyone, and he had a hard time to describe the feelings he experienced at the moment.<p>

However Koh knew that he was feeling angry, most of the time. He had placed one of his bugs on each of his teammates, which was supposed to guarantee him of their safety because the female bugs he had placed would instantly release pheromones which would alert him if any of his teammates were in danger.

However last week he had been unaware that his sensei had been killed. His bug should have warned him the moment someone suspicious had entered the wagon but it hadn't.

Koh knew why, his bug had actually released the pheromones but his male kikai bugs hadn't been able to pick up the scent from that distance while the wind was blowing in the opposite direction.

It was for that reason he was currently reading a scroll that held information about his kikai bugs. Koh knew there were many different kind of kikai bugs and he had been given the big winged double horn, just as his father and grandfather. But Koh felt that it simply was not enough, his kikai bugs were amazing, they were strong and fast flyers, perhaps the fastest in the whole Aburame-clan, but it all meant nothing if his bugs were not able to warn him fast enough. So Koh researched on how to alter his colony, how to improve them. "I won't let anyone of my team be killed." Koh swore to himself. "Never again."

* * *

><p>Sarutobi was sitting behind his desk. There was only one more report on his desk that needed to be read, and it was a report that he had tried to avoid for almost a week now. It was the report in which was written how and when one of his most promising kunoichi had been killed.<p>

Though he had read a lot of these reports it didn't happen often that one of the people he thought to have the potential to become Hokage one day was killed. Rin had been an extraordinary ninja, she had a sharp mind and was talented in not only ninja-arts but also socially. Yes, in time she would have been a good candidate for the office.

Sarutobi knew he had to read this report eventually, and stalling any longer wouldn't make the details less painful. So he opened the file and started to read.

* * *

><p>Harry walked through the door opening, and was welcomed into a room that was filled with trees; it was like a small forest, so dense. Walking onwards Harry could feel there was a presence here, unlike the menacing dreadful and violent aura he had expected to find he felt that the presence was the exact opposite of that.<p>

When Harry kept on walking, passing tree after tree he heard a sound, a childlike sobbing. Harry stopped for a few seconds after which he tried to close in on the source.

There, in the middle of a clearing sitting under an elder tree was a small boy. Too caught up in his crying the boy had not noticed Harry walking towards him until Harry sat down next to the child. The boy took his head out of his hands and looked at Harry, puffy dark eyes filled with tears greeted him.

"Hello." Harry said, looking into the boy's eyes trying to use legilimency on the child. However to Harry's surprise the only thing he could see in this boy's mind was utter grief and sadness and flashes of Harry's life, it were all moments of when Harry had felt a strong emotion or something big had transpired, the rest were just blurry images of a boy, sitting under an old elder tree.

"H..Hi." the boy said while taking a deep breath to calm down.

Harry knew who this boy was, or better said, should have been. The black messy hair that was the same as he had. The boy's nose was a perfect copy of Harry's nose. In fact the boy sitting next to Harry was almost like a carbon-copy of him. The only noticeable differences were the boy's eyes. Where Harry had deep emerald green colored eyes the still sobbing boy had pitch-black ones.

"Want to tell me why you are crying?" Harry asked, not bothering to actually introduce himself, he knew who this boy was, and this boy knew who he was. "Sometimes a burden shared is a burden halved."

The boy looked at him in distrust. "Why should I tell you, you ruined everything." The boy said melancholic.

Harry was taken aback by this reaction and though he could guess what the boy meant he knew he needed this boy to tell him, just to be sure. "I ruined your death, didn't I?" Harry asked with a look of shame on his face.

"I would've gone to heaven. I was a pure soul, I would have gone to heaven…" the boy said standing up. "Despite of everything that man had done to me I would have gone to heaven. Do you know how it feels to be in this forest for your entire conscious life? I was here the moment you took over; I was less than an embryo back then. I thought I had gone to heaven but I couldn't have been more mistaken could I have not?" the child said in righteous anger.

Harry just sat there and let the boy rage on; he understood what the kid felt. At least he could imagine it somewhat. The boy that was now standing in front of him had been the real Uchiha Haru. And from what Harry had gathered so far, the first soul that had been attached to the baby. It was one of the perks of old age; you started to accept that sometimes someone just needed a person to let their anger loose on.

"I tried to kill you from in here, you know. I'm sure you have figured it out by now, right? Harry Potter?" the boy said maliciously. "I tried everything! But you just would not die. You would not let me die! You! You! It is all your fault." the boy said in his screams.

"Yes you have certainly tried, But did you honestly want to kill me? I don't think so, because I am still here." Harry said while the boy's face paled. "You have tried to undermine me by pulling on my feelings; yes it is suddenly very obvious. After I had taken over of the embryo you at first didn't do anything. You thought you had died the moment you got in here. Correct?" Harry said calmly.

The boy nodded, all the anger had seemed to dissipate and had made way for a new emotion; sadness.

"Yes, you started to become aware of the fact that you hadn't died the day my magic changed into chakra. That was actually your first attempt was it not? Oh yes I see it now. You didn't know it back then but you tried to kill us by flooding our chakra reserves. But because of my not so limited experience with magic I knew how to shield me from those massive amounts of chakra, that first attempt of yours failed to kill us it actually helped me quite a bit to survive some of your other attempts." Harry stated as matter of fact not judging the boy that had sat down again.

"Your second attempt, though not as creative as your first one was when you took my rage of being reborn and multiplied that feeling, yes.. You thought that if I was angry enough I would move so wildly that perhaps our new father would have accidentally dropped us, successfully breaking our neck or something similar."

"I had to try…" the boy whispered. "I was not meant to live, not like this."

Harry looked at the smaller boy and deep within his heart he felt truly sorry for him. "You have tried to make use of my emotions a few more times, I can see that much. You acted out when I saw the fire-jutsu Sasuke had used, yes the mild panic I originally felt you magnified it by a thousand fold. Quite ingenious but my heart did not stop from the stress. That was perhaps your most direct approach; you tried to scare me to death."

Harry listed the numerous attempts the boy had made on his life. "When Itachi had killed the clan you wanted to make me feel guilty enough to commit suicide, however my will to live was far stronger. You made my feelings of trust towards some of the elders increase exponentially knowing that if I revealed my advanced powers I just might get assassinated, that was actually quite smart of you however I already had Danzo under my thumb after using the Mangekyou on him and the Hokage was already feeling too guilty over the massacre to kill me as well." Harry's eyes were downcast. "You have really tempered with my emotions, but not only that. It is all so clear now."

The boy was sitting in silence, both him and Harry knew what would happen after they were done talking.

"You have gotten quite adapt at influencing me over the years, to see how much you have sabotaged me during my fights and missions it must have been exhausting." Harry said thinking about his most recent mission which had been the death of Rin and causing the boy to start sobbing out loud again.

"I am tired… So tired, I just wanted this all to end." The boy said as big tears started to form in his eyes.

Harry took the boy in his arms and let the boy cry until he cried no more. "I can end your suffering." Harry told the boy. At hearing this the boy looked up, with hope-filled eyes.

"Would you do that for me? After everything I have done to you?" the boy asked in a small voice.

"Yes." Harry answered. "But before I will let you go, I want you to explain to me one thing."

The boy nodded in reply.

"You said that you should have died and gone to heaven, despite of what that man had done, what did you mean by that?" Harry asked. The boy looked slightly shocked at hearing that question.

"I… When…" the boy started. "I mean… the first day of my existence, the man that haunts outside of this forest did something to me." The boy shivered and his eyes looked as if he was looking right through Harry. "He added something into me and I was supposed to die that instant… I was supposed to go to heaven. I had even felt the warmth of the light, I had even felt the embrace of the first, I heard the songs and complete utter safety of heaven calling to me. And then you came, you latched onto the body that was just a few hours old. You came and I did not die, that's all I know."

Harry just sat there and processed that information. "Thank you." Harry said. "That explains more than you think."

"Can you let me go now?" the boy asked after a few minutes. "You promised." While saying that a huge arc started to rise in the middle of the field. The arc was made of stone and looked ancient, cracked and crumbling it seemed amazing the thing was still standing, and the archway was hung with a Veil; which appeared as a tattered black curtain, and gently fluttering and swaying very slightly as though it had just been touched.

The boy looked at the archway with longing eyes. "It's been so long since I have heard those voices." The child said. "They are asking me to come, I can just walk into it right?"

"Yes, consider it a veil between life and death, walk through it and you'll be released from the chains that hold you. But be sure of your choice, once you die there is no turning back." Harry said as he saw the boy walking towards the veil.

"I guess this is our final goodbye then." The boy said standing in front of the veil trembling slightly, just one step removed from the rippling black cloth.

"No, it is not our final goodbye." Harry said seriously. "It is only the start of your next great adventure. I hope that the next time we meet, you will be happy, until then, good luck." Harry said while the boy let himself fall into the veil, slowly drifting away with a peaceful smile on his face.

* * *

><p>Kakashi was still sitting in front of the memorial stone, ice cold rain was pouring down on him, but all he could do was sit there and hate himself for not having seen the deception.<p>

He had loved Rin, she had been the shoulder he had cried on when he couldn't take it anymore. She had been the sister he had never had and now all he had to remind him of her was her name on the memorial stone. It was somewhat comforting to know that the stone would always be there for him just like Rin had been, but it was not the same as the actual friend he needed.

Rin had been all that he had left after Obito and Minato-sensei had died. He was alone now.

It was a whole day later before another man showed up at the memorial stone.

The man in question was wearing green spandex and a jounin vest. But perhaps the most mesmerizing feature of the man was his hair, thick black hair that was cut like an up-side-down ramen bowl.

"Ah, my eternal rival." The man said with a blinding smile.

"hn." Kakashi responded not bothering to look up.

Gai, as the man was called sat down next to Kakashi in silence.

They both sat there for what looked like hours before Gai got up "Ah, Kakashi-san. It seems like a perfect night to go to that new bar and have a sake drinking contest! I can drink more sake than you." He said, flashing a smile.

"Sorry, did you say something?" Kakashi asked while thinking 'perhaps I'm not as alone as I thought'.

* * *

><p>Harry was still in his subconscious; he had left the forest room and knew that there still was someone in these halls that did not belong.<p>

Harry closed the door to the forest room and imaged a door, a door that would lead him to the man that had killed the original Haru.

It didn't take long for a door to appear before Harry, however unlike the last one, which was a standard Hogwarts classroom door, the door before him was painted black and had small red kanji written all over it, the kanji were part of some sort of seal and Harry didn't even recognize nine out of ten. However there were a lot of Kanji that referred to a snake of some sort and a few that could mean 'rite of passage?'

'Great.' Harry thought. 'Just what I needed, another snake obsessed freak in my mind… and if I piece together the clues of these kanji, my next meeting might not go as smoothly as the last one.'

However, unlike in previous moments in which something had made him feel scared or a feeling akin to it, Harry could easily control his emotions. Keeping a clear head. He prepared himself for a confrontation because the presence behind this door felt as foul as the darkest of magic he had ever encountered, it felt like a Horcrux.

Harry ordered the door to open and before he had set one foot into the room he could smell the scent of decay that was washing over him and he could see the ominous dark clouds that painted the ceiling almost black.

Ignoring the scent of decay and the gathered dark clouds Harry courageously entered the sand filled chamber. And immediately felt the other presence, it felt familiar.

"Intruder." Harry said calmly, but his voice could be heard through the entire space around him. "Stand before me and make your intentions known."

The sand around Harry started to make ripple patterns, as if something was moving underneath it. The snake-creature, as Harry assumed it was, was circling Harry who was standing still, unmoved by the threatening hissing sounds or the immense size of the snake, Harry waited for it to arise.

The creature started to slow down as its head rose out of the sand, soon followed by its body that consisted out of hundreds if not thousands of white snakes.

Harry eyed the snake in front of him and shook his head in disgust. "You have reduced yourself to something like this, for what reason… Orochimaru?"

The brown haired snake in front of Harry opened its mouth and started to speak. "Ku…ku…ku to think you managed to find my presence at such an early age. My dear creation, I shall answer your questions, because soon enough you won't be able to ask any more of them." Orochimaru said chuckling, in response Harry quirked his eyebrow but remained silent. "This is my beautiful immortal body! I have delved deeper than anyone before me in how to life forever." he said with pride.

"I see." Harry said. "What are you doing here?"

"Ku… ku… aren't you the nosey one." Orochimaru said as he rose to his full height. "I am here for you of course."

Harry was getting tired of the man's uninformative answers and decided to take control of the situation, within a second he had entered the man's mind. "Why are you in my subconscious?" Harry asked. Orochimaru couldn't move as images and feelings started to unfold themselves to Harry.

"You are here because you think you can take over?" Harry said laughing bitterly while Orochimaru was still frozen in his movements. "Since ten minutes ago, my mind has become incorruptible; you will not win when it comes to a battle of our wills."

Harry felt good, despite the fact that a mass murderer was once again in his head, he had not felt this confident in a long time, here was a battle he was sure he could win, a battle of the minds.

"In the real world you have killed my jounin-sensei, I will take great pleasure in knowing that I have killed you once in here." He said pointing to his head and releasing the stream of legilimency which had frozen Orochimaru's movements.

A grin started to appear on Orochimaru's face which soon turned into a malicious smile. "Child, it doesn't matter how strong your will is-" the sand world around Harry started to shift and became a barren land with stone that covered both Orochimaru's body as Harry's "In my world, I am master and god." Orochimaru said as Harry felt that his mind was no longer in his body.

"So this is your dimension?" Harry asked.

"Of course, I created this dimension for the sole purpose of taking over bodies. Your carefully balanced and constructed body will be able to hold me indefinitely and once I merge with my original I will be able to life forever in this perfect body with the perfect chakra."

"I'm impressed, it must have been quite difficult to create something of this magnitude." Harry sweet-talked the snake-Sannin. "But before you take over, please indulge me, and explain what you meant with your earlier statement, carefully balanced and constructed? What does that mean exactly?" Harry said closing his eyes.

Orochimaru eyes glistered with joy ""I want to obtain all the techniques and gain a true understanding of everything in this world. The first one to mix blue and yellow called the new color "green". I want to do something similar to that. If blue is the chakra, then yellow is the seal, and green is the technique… Just as there is no end to the variety of colors, there are so many thousands… tens of thousands of techniques in the world as well. But in order to obtain every possible technique and truth, it would require an eternity. Only one who understands everything after spending such time on this can be fittingly called the Ultimate Being. So I created the body of the ultimate being, by combining both lines of the sage of six paths; I created you. Though to be honest I am quite surprised that you unlike my other experiments managed to survive, I was sure that just like the others you would have been miscarried as well…" In the end Orochimaru looked shocked. "Why did I say all that?" he asked in panic.

Harry opened his eyes and showed Orochimaru his Mangekyou sharingan while the stones that had prevented Harry from moving crumbled. "My eyes, they hold power far greater than you could fathom. You will perish here, but first I want one more answer. Does the original you know I was one of his experiments?" Harry whispered into Orochimaru's ear before stepping back and using his legilimency to draw the answer out of Orochimaru.

"Figures.. He doesn't know yet but he will when you die." Harry said looking around him. "This pocket dimension is linked to the real Orochimaru in ways that make it impossible for me to cut those ties."

Orochimaru who had once again been released from his legilimency holds started to laugh insanely. "I will have your body, Uchiha! I am the Great White Immortal Snake! My original will take this information and dissect it, he will counter those eyes of yours, you are decades too young to stand up to the origin-"

Orochimaru was silenced as Harry cut off his head, standing next to Orochimaru's head harry kneeled. "Actually you are centuries too young to stand up to me." Harry said as the dimension around him faded and his own mindscape surrounded him again.

* * *

><p>Two days after having cleared up his mind Harry could be seen leaving his house, he had just finished another training session with his little brother Sasuke. Harry had been exhausted the day that he had banished both the real Haru and fake Orochimaru from his sub consciousness, and the day after that hadn't been very pleasant either for he had both a huge headache and a nagging bigger brother who wanted to spar.<p>

In a few minutes he would meet up with his team at the second training ground. Just like the first time they had met, but this time without Rin.

The rain that had been pouring down on Konoha had finally stopped just a day ago, and warm bright sunbeams were now illuminating the world around Harry.

"Hey guys." Harry said after arriving on training ground two.

"Hello Harry." Koh said from behind his sunglasses.

"Hey." Yuugi greeted back. "Come sit down." she said while motioning for Harry to sit down between her and Koh.

"It's already been more than a week since she had died…" Harry started.

"Yeah… already more than a week. Yet it 'feels' like it was just yesterday we took her body out of the wagon." Koh said with a slight shiver in his voice.

"I still can't believe that she's dead. It's like she is just waiting to surprise us telling us how we shouldn't be sitting here like three idiots and should start training." Yuugi chuckled.

"I have had some time to put things into perspective; I want us to continue as a team, even without a jounin-sensei. We are good, we know how to work together and I… I trust you guys with my life." Koh said.

"I trust you two with my life as well." Yuugi agreed with Koh, both now looking at Harry.

"Well perhaps not with my money" Harry said eyeing Yuugi, who in turn gave Harry a nasty look "but I would trust the both of you with everything else…"

"So, team twelve is still in business." Yuugi announced.

"I guess so." Harry said letting himself fall down into the grass, staring at the clouds. "And we will be stronger than before; I won't let the two of you down. Besides I know who our next Jounin-sensei will be." Harry said with a grin plastered on his face as he looked at the man sitting in the tree where he and his teammates were laying under.

* * *

><p><strong>Earlier that week<strong>

Sarutobi, as usual, was sitting behind his desk, silently fuming about all the paperwork he had to do. Truly, sometimes he thought that the other ninja villages just used their infiltrates to sneakily increase his workload.

Sarutobi grabbed the next file that was on the endless pile of paper. Inside the file was an admission paper for the chuunin exam that was being held in Suna. Looking at the name of the person who filed it he saw the name written down of the recently passed away Rin.

It did not surprise him in the least. He had seen rookie team twelve; they were good even though they had not been a team for very long, yes he had chosen wisely when he had put them together.

However he could not let them go so soon after the death of their jounin-sensei, they would never be done grieving before the exam would take place.

'Knock, knock' Hiruzen looked up at the sound of knocking on the door. "Come in." he said.

As the door slid open Kakashi walked in. "Good morning Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi looked at the man in front of him, surely the boy had seen better days, the dark circles under his eyes betrayed the sleepless nights he had had. Losing a team member was one of the most painful events that could take place in a shinobi's life, especially for someone like Kakashi who already had lost his sensei and another team member.

"Good morning to you as well, Kakashi." Placing the file had had held in his hands on the desk he slumped in his chair. "Please enlighten me, why are you here despite being 'on official leave'." He asked.

"There is something I must do in honor of Rin's memory sir."

* * *

><p>After telling the three genin about his conversation with the hokage, Kakashi asked the three genin if they were okay with that.<p>

"Sure why not." Harry said nonchalantly as he pulled up his shoulders and Koh just nodded.

"So, we get to call you Kakashi-sensei from now on?" Yuugi asked.

"Not until you've learned something from me." Kakashi said causing the three genin in front of him to chuckle. "Which will be now; because the first thing I'll teach you guys is how to win a chuunin exam in record time." At hearing that Koh, Yuugi and Harry looked up with widened eyes, though one couldn't be sure about that when they looked at Koh for the sunglasses he had been wearing that day were larger than they normally were obscuring his eyes.

"We've only just become genin, there is no rush in becoming chuunin, Kakashi." Harry said. "Besides, there are no shortcuts when it comes to the ninja world; you have to work hard for every inch gained on the shinobi-ladder."

"Ahh, that is most certainly true, but that doesn't change the fact that I will teach you how to become chuunin, in record time." Kakashi said with his eye-smile. "I will train you guys so much the next year, that by the time the next chuunin exams start you will be able to defeat even the most senior genin team."

Kakashi walked to the middle of the training ground "For your first training session I want to see what you guys are capable of, all three of you." Kakashi yelled.

"Well, if it is a fight he wants, it will be a fight he gets." Yuugi said standing up. "Let's switch roles a bit shall we, this time, I will be the distraction while you two try to trap him." Yuugi said as she activated her byakugan.

"Are you sure that is a wise decision, Yuugi. Our main strength lies in the fact that Harry can create enough confusion which allows us to attack unnoticed." Koh said unbuttoning his coat as red bugs crawled out of it.

"Are those new, Koh?" Harry asked looking at the red bugs that were still crawling out of Koh's coat.

"Yes."

Harry chuckled, but soon turned serious again. "I have to agree with Koh, Yuugi, let's do it as we have been trained to do. Beside I have a few things which I'm sure he won't expect coming from an Uchiha." Harry said while his green eyes turned red and three tomoe started to spin around.

"Ok…" Yuugi whispered "but then I want you to create some sort of view obstruction first. I have been taught a few new tricks as well that I'm anxious to try out."

Harry looked at his teammates; to see that they were still so spirited made him feel proud of them. They hadn't let the death of their sensei bring them down. And that meant that Harry couldn't let them down either.

Speeding through the required hand seals Harry slammed the earth with both his fists, suddenly, slabs of stone rose out of the ground forming walls around Kakashi. Kakashi however didn't seem to be bothered by the genin's jutsu and simply dashed forward, jumping over the stone slabs. Though before he reached the three genin more stone slabs were quickly forming succeeding in obscuring his path.

As Kakashi jumped over the last stone wall he was greeted by a small army of red bugs which soon tried to latch on to him. As the bugs engulfed Kakashi he exploded in smoke.

"Not a bad combination; however all those stone slabs must have been very taxing on your chakra reserves." Kakashi said to the two genin he had just appeared behind.

Both genin however were already on the move. "It was not as exhaustive as you might think, Kakashi-sensei. After all, those with an affinity for certain elements find themselves to have to spend less chakra on that element." Harry said as a smirk started to appear on his face.

"When it comes to jutsu's, you should not underestimate me or the extent of my chakra." Harry said, hoping that Kakashi would focus on him and not on Yuugi.

"Don't bark if you can't bite." Kakashi said, clearly not impressed with Harry's arrogance despite the conversation he did not fail to notice the nearing Hyuuga. Turning around he picked the Hyuuga girl up before she even had the chance to strike, and threw her away.

Harry looked at Koh and they nodded in understanding.

Harry created three clones that ran towards the jounin. The clones were Harry's favorite kind of clones, exploding ones.

Kakashi looked at the three clones that were closing in on him "You move too slow, even if you outnumber me three to one… we're going to have to work on that." Kakashi said before all three clones seemed to just vanish from view with a soft pop and reappeared around him.

"I may not be the fastest of my team-"Harry said looking at Yuugi. "But I have my own way of working around that." The three exploding clones took hold of Kakashi and exploded leaving behind a small crater.

However the three exploding clones had not managed to take Kakashi out as they could all clearly see that there was no-one in the crater.

Suddenly the stone wall next to Harry started to fall down, Harry dashed away, just in time. Behind the fallen stone slab Kakashi was standing "Good job, you took out one of my clones, perhaps you are not just all bark." The jounin said.

Harry looked at the jounin and decided that if he couldn't catch this man with nin-jutsu, and he wouldn't even bother with tai-jutsu. He needed to distract the man with gen-jutsu. Channeling chakra Harry made the eleven hand seals required for the jutsu.

* * *

><p>Kakashi looked with a narrowed eye at Harry. The boy had just used a jutsu, but for the heck of it Kakashi did not know which one. What Kakashi did know however was that the Hyuuga girl had been trying to come closer ever since she had been thrown away.<p>

From his right a huge cloud of red bugs started to come closer, Kakashi knew that these were not just normal bugs, these little fellows would drain him of his chakra, but Kakashi knew just the solution to that.

Gathering chakra in his lungs and flashing through the thirty-two hand seals Kakashi spit out a huge fire ball, successfully roasting all the bugs. Or so he thought.

* * *

><p>Koh had seen that Harry had used one of his genjutsu's. It was one of the tactics they had developed under Rin's tutoring. Harry would make their opponent think that Koh's bugs were coming from a different direction then they really were.<p>

Koh gathered all his bugs and attacked with them from Kakashi's left side.

All the while he could see that Yuugi was gathering chakra for some sort of final attack.

* * *

><p>She had been gathering chakra for almost a minute now, it would not be much longer before she would be able to execute her plan. She was thankful for her teammates' efforts because they had been very successful in distracting the one-eyed jounin in front of her.<p>

She saw that the bugs were only inches away before the jounin succeeded in dispelling the genjutsu Harry had placed him under.

The bugs actually managed to surround Kakashi, allowing Yuugi to come closer without the danger of Kakashi seeing her. With all her gathered chakra she knew that if she released her three palm strike from a close distance that they would win, jounin or not, the Jyuuken was a powerful tai-jutsu style causing great internal injuries.

However, to her great dismay the jounin appeared in front of her, too close for her to unleash the power of her three palm stike, so she had to fall back to the eight-palm divination strikes. "You are in my range" she said with a voice of steel. In a swift fury of movement she attacked.

Kakashi however, blocked all her attacks with his left arm before he vanished from sight, only to drag Yuugi underground, leaving her useless.

Fuming inside Yuugi did her best to get out, but unlike Harry's decapitation technique, Kakashi's seemed to leave her no room for movement at all.

* * *

><p>Harry popped over to Yuugi, ready to use his own decapitation techniqgue to free her, but before he even had time to use the handseals kakashi appeared before him with his hand on his headband. "I can appreciate the fact that you want to save little miss hyuuga here, but I am afraid I can't let you do that just yet." Kakashi lifted the headband and Harry stared into the red, three tomoed eye. "You see, I have to repay you for that genjutsu you tricked me with earlier." Kakashi said gleefully.<p>

Harry knew that he was under the man's own genjutsu now, for what he saw was not reality but his worst nightmare. On the ground laid Ginny, her bones sticking out of her skin, blood pouring out of open wounds. Harry stopped his chakra flow completely and stopped the gen-jutsu he was under.

"Sweet dreams, little Haru." Kakashi said as Harry snapped out of the genjutsu. And before Harry could even think about using his 'body popping' he laid there, unconscious on the ground.

* * *

><p>Almost fifteen minutes later Harry was woken up by a bucket of ice cold water that had been emptied above his head.<p>

"Bloody hell! What was that for." Harry yelled in true Weasly fashion as he stared in anger at the man that was holding said bucket.

"You didn't wake up, so I thought I'd help you." Kakashi said, eye-smiling. Behind Kakashi Harry saw Yuugi and Koh sitting, both looking like they had been through quite a battle.

"You all performed quite well." Kakashi said, his tone suddenly very serious. "However there are some glaring problems with your techniques and strategies of which I am sure Rin… informed you off before."

"Koh. Your kikai bugs are certainly very fast not only that, but they can drain bucket loads of chakra in seconds, however their reaction time to your commands needs to be faster." Kakashi lectured. "Beside that you are slower than these two and really need to get better at tai-jutsu." Koh just nodded in response.

"Harry, you waste too much chakra on big jutsu's while sometimes a jutsu that is less chakra intensive would do the job as well. Other than that you need to get faster in body as well as in dispelling genjutsu's, you noticed way too late that I was behind you. However I have to compliment you on your cunning tactic with the explosive clones, however they made you a bigger target than the other two at that moment." Kakashi said before turning around and facing Yuugi.

"You rely too much on your Byakugan and Jyuuken however your reliance on your byakugan and jyuuken leave you open to other tactics, An expert is the one who knows more and more about less and less. You cannot neglect ninjutsu or genjutsu just because they are not your strongest points; you can't always count on Harry or Koh to create distractions for you. Other than that you should be proud of the fact that you managed to make my left arm useless before you lost." After saying that Kakashi chuckled.

"Well, I will meet you guys tomorrow at training ground seven, your year and a half of hell will start then." he said as he shunshined away.

"He is going to work us to the ground, isn't he?" Yuugi said sighing.

* * *

><p>The next few months were very hard on Harry and his team. Kakashi had them training every morning and work on team tactics in the afternoon during the weekdays while in the weekends they had to go on missions.<p>

It was on one of these weekends, almost a year after they had been named team Kakashi that they had finished another C-rank mission, marking their fiftieth successful c-rank mission Harry added in his head.

While they were walking through the Konoha gates Kakashi dropped the C-bomb.

"I have decided that you kids are ready to take the upcoming chuunin exams." Kakashi said as if he was talking about nothing important.

As one, the three genin stood still while Kakashi kept on walking only to look back after noticing he was the only one still walking. "What?" he asked.

"You do remember what you promised us, don't you?" Yuugi asked with the same on her face as Harry and Koh. After a few seconds without answer Yuugi continued. "The day you thought we were ready for the chuunin exams would be the day you would treat us dinner!" Yuugi said victoriously.

"Ah, that… yeah sure." Kakashi said.

-Later that day at the Ichiraku ramen stand

"Wow, this place is great, how did you find out about?" Kakashi asked, looking at the cheap prizes.

"A friend of mine likes to come here… a lot." Harry responded. "But could you please tell us more about the chuunin exams?" Harry asked. Both Yuugi and Koh seemed to be very interested as well for they both looked up in expectation to Kakashi.

"Well… the chuunin exams, as you know are held twice each year. The exam is different in each village though it always consists of three parts. The latter always being a grand tournament in which villages get to show off their strongest genin to their possible clients. The better our genin perform the higher the chances are that your village will get good publicity." Kakashi explained. "It was not always like that. Before the third ninja world war, each village held their own chuunin exam. however as a sign of good will the chuunin exams are now being held in a different village each time and all qualified genins are allowed to be entered if they have permission."

Kakashi looked around. "The next chuunin exam is being held in Kumo, the land of lightning. Kumo is one of the toughest ninja villages and hardly ever send out their genins to chuunin exams. Which means you guys will probably face a lot of Kumo-ninja in these exams, and they are not afraid to kill." At hearing that, the three genin that were sitting next to Kakashi looked slightly uncomfortable. "But don't worry; I have full confidence in your skills both as a team and as individuals." Kakashi said unconvincingly.

"Are you coming with us to Kumo, Kakashi-sensei?" Yuugi asked before eating a sliced piece of egg.

"Of course! And not only me." He answered "See, if you make it to the finals the Hokage himself shall come and so will the Fire-daimyo. They will be there to judge you. The more you guys show off in the finals the more customers Konoha will get." Kakashi paused for a moment and looked intently at Harry. "I will even allow you to use 'that' justu."

"Are you sure about that, Kakashi-sensei, Kumo is known for stealing blood-line limits whenever they get the chance, showing that jutsu might just interest them enough to kidnap us… Besides that she has the byakugan which they have been after for decades?" Harry asked.

"Don't worry about that, I will be with you guys all the way." Kakashi said. 'They have become so strong Rin, I hope you're proud of them, that you're proud of me…' he said silently in his head.

"So who wants another bowl of ramen? With these prices I might just treat you guys to ramen if you all become chuunin." The jounin joked.

* * *

><p><strong>AN<strong>: Let the rage commence…


	21. Once upon a time

**AN: So it has been a while since I've updated but I want you guys and girls to know that I've been working very hard on the comming chapters, I have already written ahead for about fifteen thousand words so about three chapters. I want to know something though; Do you guys want it all in one big chapter or do you want it in parts (the chuunin exam)?**

**Let me know! but for now enjoy reading this long awaited game-changing-chapter.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 20; Once upon a time ; prelude to the chuunin exams<strong>

Harry was sitting at the dining table waiting for Sasuke to wake up. The sun had been the only company he had so far, the sun and of course his cup of warm milk.

This afternoon he and his team would head out to Kumo which meant that he would not see Sasuke for at least a month. And Harry was sure that Sasuke would need that month without him present to think some things over.

Harry had noticed that Sasuke had not been the same after the massacre, the lighthearted boy he had known Sasuke to be had changed into a boy that was brooding all the time. It was as if a seed of hatred or self-loathing had been planted in the boy.

Sasuke thought he could hide the fact his smiles never reached his eyes or that if he thought Harry wasn't looking the smile turned into sneer. But Harry had seen it as clear as a stupefy at night. And it was something that needed to change, for Sasuke's sake but also for his own.

"Good morning Sasuke." Harry said before looking up to see Sasuke coming down the stairs.

"Morning."

"I made breakfast for you, and a cup of warm milk with honey." He said hoping to see a sign of thankfulness, a sign of the boy Sasuke used to be, but even though Sasuke thanked him and even flashed him a small smile Harry did not feel the warmth he had hoped to recieve. The child sitting in front of Harry was as cold as stone and it scared Harry.

It scared Harry because he had seen, though it was a long time ago, someone that had embraced the same cold interior. And while that child had not been pulled into the light he would try his hardest to make sure that Sasuke did not turn out like his old nemesis.

"Sasuke, we need to talk." Harry said seriously.

* * *

><p>Sasuke noticed the change that had just come over Harry, the childlike and playful aura around Harry, that always felt to be embracing him and almost suffocated him in kindness had turned in to something different in a heartbeat. But Sasuke could see through the façade of kindness around Harry.<p>

Sasuke could see through the deceitful lies and half-truths of his younger brother.

Harry, in their training fights, had been going easy on him; even though he was sure he could step it up. But Harry had been keeping him weak with his promises of power and grandeur, as if practicing kata's would help him in a fight!

If he ever was to obtain his goal, the death of his two brothers, he would need more than mere ninja-academy tai-jutsu. He would need to get those same eyes, the sharingan, the Mangekyou.

"Sure." He answered his little brother. The little brother that was acting as if he was an adult most of the time, the rest of the world didn't see it but Harry was perhaps the most adult like person he knew, with weird quirks like always lighting a candle on Thursday evenings and sayings as 'bloody hell' or 'in Merlins name' though the last one he didn't say quite as often.

Harry was hailed as a genius, a once in a lifetime ninja genius. And Sasuke had to admit that his little brother perhaps had more talent in his pinky than most ninja in their whole body. And thought it pained him greatly Sasuke also had to admit that if it was not for his inner true self that he too would have believed the lies and half-truths, that he would have been manipulated by the younger Uchiha.

But his true-self protected him, made sure that he knew how to tell lies from truths.

* * *

><p>"I want to tell a tale, and it will be up to you to decide what you think about it." Harry said to his brother as he stood up and closed the window so no one would hear him, he even went as far as to try one of the silencing seals to seal off the sound outside of the house, but all he managed to do was to seal of the kitchen area, a small success.<p>

Sasuke nodded in response and started eating.

"In a land not that far from here where there lived wizards and dragons, people could do actual magic. There three brothers were walking on a road. The first and oldest brother was a prideful man that boasted about his achievements and physical prowess. Behind the first brother walked a second brother, the second brother walked hunching forward, his guilt and pain of the past weighing down on him. The third and youngest brother was a modest young man and gladly closed of the small line.

When the three brothers reached a cliff that looked down on a deep canyon with a wild river. You have to know that the three brothers were all very capable wizards and while most people died trying to jump to the other side the three brothers did not risk that and with their magic created an bridge that would let them and all travelers from then on reach the other side safely.

It didn't take long before the bridge was made and the three brothers reached the other side. As soon as all three had crossed the wind started to howl and before them appeared a creature cloaked in black. The three brothers instantly knew who it was that was standing there, it was Death.

Death, enraged with the three brothers for keeping many men and women from falling to their death, told the three brothers that for defeating him with their magic he would bestow upon them three gifts of their choice.

The first brother in his euphoria saw a chance to become the story of legends and demanded of Death to make him a wand more powerful than all other wands, an unbeatable wand a wand stronger than Death himself. Death turned around and from an elder tree he created the most powerful wand known to wizards.

The second brother, who up till then had wallowed in his guilt and sorrow asked for a way to bring back his lost loved ones. Death kneeled down and picked up the first stone he saw and gave it to the second brother, telling him that he only needed to ask for the person for that person to appear in front of him.

The third brother, who was quite happy with his life asked for a way to hide from death so that he could live his life the way he wanted to. Death, though he didn't like it, gave his own cloak of invisibility to the youngest brother and bid the three brothers farewell.

Sasuke had stopped eating and had been listening very intently; Harry's voice had almost been hypnotizing.

Harry paused for a moment and seemed to think something over. "Sasuke, imagine that you were one of these three brothers. Which of these gifts would you ask for?" Harry looked inquisitive but genuine so Sasuke answered truthfully.

"The wand of course." Sasuke said simply.

"Why?"

Sasuke thought for a second before answering "Well what good is a cloak which hides you from Death if you are too weak to do anything with your life? Why would you want a stone to see the dead if you can see them once you die? The smartest choice is the wand, the power it would give him would surely be the fastest way to reach his goal, in the end only power matters."

Harry sighed before he continued with a sad smile. "So you would choose power, the easiest way to get what you want out of life?"

Sasuke looked thoughtful for a second but answered without a doubt present in his voice. "Yes."

"Then let me tell you how this tale ends." Harry said taking a sip from his slowly cooling milk.

"The first brother, now master of the most powerful wand in existence went to the nearest pub and boasted about his victory over death, showed astounding feats of magic as other looked at him in envy. That night when the eldest brother went to sleep he was killed, the wand was taken from him and death, gleefully, took the first brother from that world.

The second brother who had lost his wife not too long ago used the stone that same night to summon her to him. However what appeared in front of him was a mere ghost of the woman he had loved. Unable to love his wife in life the brother killed himself deciding to love her in death. That was how death took the second brother with him.

The third and youngest brother who had become owner of the cloak of invisibility did not boast of his relic and used it only when needed. After having lived a long and love filled life the youngest brother took off his cloak, gave it to his son and greeted Death as an old friend."

As Harry finished the story he looked at Sasuke once more. "Three brothers, Sasuke. I'll ask you again now knowing how their life ended; What if you were one of the three, if for some reason Death could bestow you anything you ever wanted. What would you chose?"

"I would still choose the wand… I just would not be stupid enough to show it off to anyone." Sasuke said undignified before he started eating again,

The sad smile Harry had worn earlier was still present on his face. Standing up, Harry walked over to Sasuke and looked up to him. Green eyes seemed to penetrate Sasuke's soul. "I'm not blind Sasuke." Sasuke looked with a riddled face at Harry.

"I know that."

"I remember seeing in you the brightest and most kindhearted brother I could wish for. But now…" At this Harry placed his hand on Sasuke's chest while looking him in the eye. "It is like you are being consumed from the inside out. As if…"

"Shut up!" Sasuke suddenly yelled as he pushed Harry away and something inside of Sasuke snapped. "Don't act like this! As if you know everything!" Anger was radiating from Sasuke's face.

"Sasuke, don't shut me out. I have lost them too, and it hurts." Harry said as he laid his hand over his own heart, and thought not only of Mikoto and Fugaku but also of all his friends and family he had lost so long ago.

"But you knew he was going to kill them! You… you! It's all your fault." Sasuke leaped forward with a raised fist while Harry just looked wide-eyed at the bigger boy's assault on him.

* * *

><p>Yuugi was standing next to Koh and their sensei, Hatake Kakashi, who for once had actually been the first on to arrive. They had planned to meet up with each other just in front of the gate at 10 o clock in the morning. But it was half past ten right now and the Uchiha wonder was still nowhere to be seen.<p>

"Why is that brat not here yet!" Yuugi asked angrily.

Kakashi sighed and looked at his hot-tempered student. "Perhaps he is having a hard time saying goodbye to his brother." He offered. "Besides, there is still time, there is no rush…"

"Still, it is uncharacteristic behavior coming from him; he has not been late for a single meeting since we've become genin." Koh commented dully.

"If he is not here within the hour we'll drag him out of his bed or something... For now, let's enjoy the nice weather." Kakashi said as he took out an orange book and started to read it.

* * *

><p>Sasuke was on top of Harry now, the smaller boy looked impassively at him, and he had showed he was stronger. He was on top. He was in control!<p>

"What now Sasuke?" Harry asked. "You're on top. You now get to make the decision; what will you do with your power?"

Inside his mind Sasuke was still raging; Harry's words infuriated him, the words he said sounded as if they were some kind of clue as if he was solving a riddle and Harry was trying to give him clues. It infuriated him so much that he actually just wanted to punch the smaller kid in his face and keep punching it until it became a bloody stomp. 'We could kill him now, he betrayed us… he betrayed our family by not saying anything.' His true-self started. 'We are in control now.'

Harry once again stared at Sasuke's eyes and Sasuke felt as if he was looking right through him, and for a moment it felt like Harry was trying to comfort him in ways Sasuke did not understand.

"Power corrupts, Sasuke. And absolute power corrupts completely. I know now you know that I knew that Itachi was going to kill some people of the clan." Sasuke's face softened at hearing that. 'He knew I knew?'

"Then why did you not tell me the truth?" Sasuke asked in righteous anger and hurt. "Why for more than a year did you act like you were just as much of a victim as I was? As if our bond meant anything?" moist was becoming apparent in Sasuke's eyes.

"There are times in our lives when we have to decide between what is right and what is easy. I chose what was easy thinking it was right. It was foolish of me, I've known that for a while now. But in my defense I can say that I'm not perfect, I don't hold all the answers, I can make mistakes." Harry looked really pained for a moment. "I am only human."

Sasuke tightened his grip on Harry's collar. While Harry just laid there, not struggling. He was just lying there and Sasuke wanted to be angry at him so badly, but to see his little brother lying there in defeat somehow destroyed all of his resolve in killing him he had not even heard his true-self objecting as he let go of Harry.

"Sasuke, I am sorry for never telling you the whole story. But I will make it up to you. I will explain as much as I can but you need to promise me that you will not tell another soul about this. Not your friends, not your teachers, no one." Harry said seriously.

"Tell me what you know and I will stay silent, but tell me the truth."

Harry looked at his bigger brother, the darkness that had been residing in Sasuke had been sealed away for now, but he had broken a promise to achieve it, but for family and friends he was willing to break more than just a promise to an old man. He was willing to move mountains if it meant that his loved ones would not have to walk through the darkness alone or at all.

"It all started…"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Short; but I had to edit a lot of filler stuff that had Harry using legilimency on Sasuke, It was unneeded and just dragged it out, So I made the decision for you guys read it between the lines; let me know what you though about this chapter in a review!<strong>


	22. The chuunin exams

**AN: Hello dear readers! thank you for the amazing feedback I've gotten for the previous chapter.  
>This chapter will be a bit different compared to how the other chapters have been written; still I hope you enjoy it.<strong>

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><p><strong>Chapter 21:The Chuunin exam<strong>

**Kumo**

Clouds were whirling around the mountains surrounding her. Her sword was glistering in the pale sunlight and a man was towering over her. She had been beaten so thoroughly that her entire body ached but she could not give up now.

Tightening her grip on the tantõ's handle she used it to rise up again. Awkward breathing caused by a punch she had survived moments earlier to her throat let her teammates know she would not be able to hold out much longer.

"I will not… break this easily, sensei." She said with short breaths. The tantõ in her hand, her best friend was ready to draw blood and so she dashed forward and slashed down, the short blade was blocked by one of the seven swords her sensei held but she was fast enough to spin around and to slash again.

She kept stabbing and slashing at her sensei but with each strike her tantõ seemed to get heavier and heavier.

"Your fighting spirit is not wavering, but your hands are quivering." Her sensei rapped taking out his notebook and writing down his lyrics.

Her sensei was right, her hand was trembling and it would not be long before she could no longer keep control of her short blade . 'I won't make chuunin if I can't even hold out longer than five minutes against sensei. I have to push myself further than this.' She thought while placing her left hand next to her rights on the powerful weapon's hilt.

"Prepare yourself sensei, I won´t give up so easily this time," with renewed control she held her tantõ horizontal as if she was using it as a pedal. She started to move the short blade while walking forward, making double circles she used her most destructive tantõ technique, if it made contact. "Dance of the eight deaths" she said in all but a whisper while accelerating.

Her short blade, the perfect killing tool whistled in the air and with the tantõ's melody she sang the deadliest song for the deadliest dance. "The first dance; dance of the open throat."

Her short blade, in a flash managed to tear open the throat of her sensei, not willing to stop she pushed on, the melody of her whistling tantõ guiding her. "Second dance; Walz of the jugular's bloody fountain." But before her sword struck her sensei's body it seemed to disintegrate into pure chakra, bright blue electric flashes erupted from the body of chakra while lightning bolts went through her short blade and before she could let go of her tantõ she was paralyzed.

"You fought a good fight, chuunin becoming you might!" her sensei said after the paralyzing effects had worn off.

"Thank you Kirabi-sensei." She said before placing her tantõ in the scabbard on her back.

"Che! Not bad Samui." her team-mate Karui said.

"Yes, not bad but what if we have to fight someone in the chuunin exams that is just as strong or stronger than the clone of Kirabi-sensei and you get knocked out leaving the two of us to fight for your unconscious body which-" Omoi was silenced as Karui knocked him on his head with a fist.

"Quit your yapping!" she said, seething.

Samui looked at her two team-mates, she knew that the two of them were strong enough to hold their own in a battle but she also knew that by far, she was stronger than the both of them combined. If ever it came down to it, it would be her that would protect these two in the chuunin exam. "That's enough, Karui your next." She said sitting down next to Omoi.

* * *

><p>Just one more week before the chuunin exams would start in full and already she could see the village welcoming foreign ninja´s. It was a great opportunity for Kumo to showcase it´s wonderful scenery and business ventures. Yes, Kumo was most certainly ready to get some financial boost out of the upcoming exam.<p>

Her team had been given one week to rest and prepare themselves for the exam, there would be a total of sixteen Kumo teams entering this exam and only one or two would be able to make it to the finals in more than a month. Bets were already being placed, and her team was one of the favorites, so she had to live up to it. The Raikage himself had also placed a bet of one-million on their team so there was no pressure there, at all…

Who was she fooling? Certainly not herself, this coming exam would be life changing for her, she would become chuunin, that much she knew but Kumo had a lot to win and even more to lose next month. If the Kumo-genin did not impress it could mean that clients would lose faith in Kumo's strength and that would mean that Kumo would get less missions and financial support from the Daimyo.

Looking out of her window she could see the main road over which most visitors traveled to Kumo. The road had been exceptionally crowded today for it was the last day on which genin-teams could be entered.

Samui considered this part of her preparation time, to look out for all the genin-teams that the other villages entered. There was a lot she could get out of the way a person walked or behaved, especially from genin, they were easy to read. She had learned how to read people from her father and according to him she was very good at it for a genin, it was something she prided herself.

The first person she noticed who was acting "not cool" as she dubbed it was a boy, not much older than she was; he was trying to walk as if he was a big shot, with some sort of swagger. But she could clearly see from the way his shoulders were lowered that the boy was putting on an act and the way his left leg kept limping every time he placed his foot a slight bit more to the inside, which was an obvious sign for an injury to the boy's ankle. No the pretty Suna boy would not be a problem.

She observed a lot more of these kind of genins, they were not at all interesting, not even the many jounin that walked with their teams seemed to be interesting; though the red haired woman who had walked past her home just a minute ago was interesting and her team seemed to walk with confidence as well. Yes that hidden Mist team might be a team to look out for. Especially the sharp teethed boy who almost seemed to be too light footed to even leave imprints in the soft ground under him, probably a user of the famed silent killing technique.

Many people passed by some were old and crippled some were young and energetic but only a few seemed to be cautious and dangerous. Her stomach was making rumbling sounds so she decided to make herself something. She turned around but in the corner of her eye she saw a team that immediately caught her attention. A team that seemed to not be noticeable at all, a team that were so ordinary that she had almost classified them as 'just another useless team' but what gave them away was the fact that while they seemed to be casually walking and chatting their eyes were moving around from left to right, they were reading their opponents, just as she was.

Deciding to turn back and let her stomach complain for a little bit longer she focused on the team. It was a standard genin team, three genin and one jounin, they were all dressed in black and green and their Hitai-ate proudly boasted about their origin. They were from Konoha, which surprised her, she had not seen any other Konoha-teams so far, did that mean that this was the only team entering this year? Did their village have that much confidence in this team?

Deciding that watching from afar would not be enough, she decided to skip her lunch and follow the Konoha ninja. Running downstairs she told her mother she was going to train and as she closed the front door she saw the team she wanted to follow disappear inside the crowd.

"Sorry" she said as she walked through the crowd and pushed people to the side until she could see the four Konoha ninja again. She decided to analyze the jounin first, the grey haired man was walking on the far left of the four, his walk was confident yet lazily. It was as if this man knew that any danger that could come his way would be easy to overcome. It was obvious by the way he placed his feet he was ready to move to each side, it must have become a habit of the jounin, he placed his feet perfectly betraying his skill in agility and tai-jutsu. His right hand was in his pocket but by the outline of his pants, though hardly noticeable if one didn't search for it, she could deduct that the jounin had at least one kunai stacked in there, ready to be used. The man did not give much away but this was what she could see from behind. Opening her father's Bingo-book she skipped to the Konoha ninja's, if her suspicions were correct than this man was one of the most dangerous ninja in the village of Konoha. She stopped turning the pages as she saw a picture of a grey haired, one-eyed jounin that went by the name of Hatake Kakashi better known as 'Copy-nin Kakashi' or 'Kakashi of the sharingan.'

She ripped her eyes of the page after marking it for a later read, she now focused her annalistic prowess on the girl next to Kakashi, the girl had long black hair with a bluish hue. She had a very controlled walk, a straight back and she hardly moved her arms. But just like Hatake Kakashi this girl placed her feet with a care that betrayed that she was not walking as relaxed as she wanted to show the world she was. The girl hardly had any ninja-tools on her which could mean two things, she either had them sealed somewhere, unlikely but possible or she mostly used nin-jutsu and tai-jutsu. The way her body was build it was more likely the latter than the former for the under-arms were slender but had well developed muscles. Taking out a notebook she scribbled down her observations.

Next to the girl a boy walked, unlike his teammates the boy hardly talked and his he was not much of a mover either, at least if his walk was anything to go by, and with her skills in reading people it was. The boy, wore wide clothes which did not allow her to assess the boy's body or muscles but that was not necessary. The boy, on his cloak had the clan symbol of the Aburame, masters in the usage of Kikai-bugs, famed for their won battles against the seven-tailed Jinchuuriki in the first and second ninja world war. Using her skills in chakra-reading, which was not her most exact skills she walked closer, for the Aburame clan also had one weakness, if they did not have enough chakra they were useless. But the amount she could sense from this boy, while not enormous was still considerably larger than the textbooks described the Aburame's normal level to be.

So far this team had been a team to look out for, the Aburame, and what she was almost sure of was a Hyuuga would be just as strong, if not stronger than her own teammates. The third and smallest kid would decide which was stronger, her team or theirs.

The youngest genin in the team, if she were to go on looks was the raven-haired boy, unlike his teammates he didn't really walk so much as he skipped, as if he was playing some sort of game. But she knew this game it was a game of deceit. The boy's hands showed some minor scarring, probably from fighting kunai. Also noticeable was that the boy preferred to set off with his right foot meaning that it was probably the stronger leg. The boy had his forehead protector around his middle, probably because it was too large for the small boy's forehead. The boy's arms were visible and while his muscles looked formidable for his age it didn't look like this boy would be any danger to her or her team. It was when she came to that conclusion that she saw the Uchiha crest sewn onto the jacket under the cloak the boy wore.

'So this team consists out of an Hyuuga girl more likely than not proficient with the Gentle fist, an Aburame with a large chakra pool and a light-footed Uchiha boy that doesn't seem to be able to quite pack a punch… perhaps he uses gen-jutsu… they are not as big of a competition as the hidden Mist seems to be' Samui thought before she turned around, unnoticed. Or so she assumed.

* * *

><p>Samui was sharpening her faithful tantõ diligently; the short blade had been given to her by her sensei, Kirabi. It was a gift for making genin, he had told her to give the short blade a name but she had not been able to do that yet. So far she had never really used it in battle, relying more on her tai-jutsu skills and nin-jutsu to get the job done. 'But', so she promised herself, 'if ever I draw blood from a real enemy or opponent I'll know what your name is'.<p>

Karui had already named her sword. It was fitting for Karui to, probably without a thought, name an object of such importance so easily. But she could not. A sword had a personality, a personality that showed itself in battle.

Placing her, now sharpened, tantõ in it's sheath she went down to the kitchen to eat breakfast with her family.

"Samui-can, Come down breakfast is ready to be served." Her mother announced loudly.

Samui walked into the kitchen and sat down. "Good morning." She said.

"So, little sis, is it getting hot under ye feet yet, ready for the chuunin exam?" her brother asked while chewing on a dango stick.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Atsui." Their mother chided causing Atsui to look guiltily.

"Not really, I am ready and so are Omoi and Karui. Kirabi-sensei has trained us well for the last two years we can handle a bunch of genin." Samui said before starting on her own dango sticks.

Thirty minutes later a knock was heard on the door. Rushing to the door Samui said goodbye to her family and after a hug from her mother she opened the door, ready to go to the chuunin exams with her teammates.

"Hey Karui, thank you for picking me up."

* * *

><p>All the genin teams had to go to one of the biggest halls in Kumo, the H-Halls. It used to be an state of the art hospital during the earlier years of Kumo but after the medic-ninjas were introduced the huge space was no longer needed and the hospital moved to a much smaller building.<p>

Karui, Omoi and Samui were walking through the giant genjutsu that was placed on the open doors. Everyone that entered had been given a ticket with time, date and place. Apparently the people who had set-up this genjutsu wanted the weaker genins to fall for the elaborate gen-jutsu disqualifying them for not showing up on time. Still, the amount of genin that were inside was not easy to count.

"Che! That are a lot of teams." Karui said.

"Yes, but I've observed them all. There are only four teams that have any chance of making the finals, and that includes our team." Samui said quietly, for only her team to hear, however someone had heard her.

"And which teams would that be, pretty little girl." A giant boy asked of her.

Samui turned around to look at the huge Iwa-genin. "That does not concern you. You should have done your own preparations. I am not here to to provide someone information, unless you have something you want to trade it for, big guy." Samui said standing very close to the genin.

The boy seemingly didn't know what to say and just stood there; drool coming out of his mouth by the provocative pose Samui was striking. "Argh, Daimaru. Get your big useless ass over here and stop harassing other teams. We're supposed to remain on the background you idiot!" a girl said with a voice that betrayed how annoyed she was before taking hold of Daimaru's ear and pulling him with her.

Samui and her team watched the pathetic ordeal with small grins apparent on their faces.

"He asked what I wanted to know though. Which teams are that Samui?" Karui asked after the two genin had disappeared in the crowd.

Looking around her Samui motioned for her teammates to follow her; they stopped in one of the corners. "There are three genin-groups that show chuunin or above skill. I didn't have a lot of success at observing them considering that some of them have been locked up in their hotel rooms since arriving but I know the following: There is us. We are strong enough to beat a chuunin team if we work together." At this Karui nodded with a huge grin. While Omoi just kept on sucking on his lollipop and looking worried. "There is a team from Iwa; not the two we saw just now but another team. From what I have seen the team itself is not all that great but there is one girl that is really strong, she bears the symbol of the Tsuchikage's family, if ever we end up alone against her we must run away from her, she is seriously skilled. I saw her in a trainings session with her sensei, she was unbelievably strong." Samui shared with her teammates.

"Then there is a team from the hidden mist. They are all very killed and seemed to be very proficient in ken-jutsu and the twins have huge iron gauntlets. You can recognize them easily because one of the three has shark-like teeth and bears the symbol of the Hõzuki-clan on his clothing, which probably means he can use the hydrification technique. And he has a huge bandaged sword strapped to his back." Samui paused for a second to check her surroundings. "There is also a team from Konoha, the only team from Konoha which speaks volumes of the amount of trust placed on them to make it to the finals. On the team is a Hyuuga girl who is obviously skilled in the arts of the Gentle Fist, there is an Sharingan user among them, it's a young boy, not much older than five perhaps six years, I believe he mainly uses Genjutsu, but the biggest threat in that team is an Aburame. You recognize him by the baggy clothes and shade he wears, and he has an abnormal amount of chakra for his clan." Samui finished.

"How can we win hope to win this exam, if there are such prominent clans participating?" Omoi wondered out loud earning himself a nasty look from Karui.

Samui placed her hand on her teammates' shoulders. "It does not matter. If we play it smart we might not even have to fight any of them directly, I have faith that as a team we will be able to succeed in this exam and reach the finals."

At hearing a loud scream her team turned around just in time to see a dark haired girl punch Daimaru in his stomach causing him to slide back ten feet and landing on his behind. "Guess that ass was not as useless as that girl said it was." Karui joked.

"If you ever say that again, I will not punch you in the stomach but I will punch your chest so hard that your hearts stops beating!" the girl said in anger.

"That is the Hyuuga girl from Konoha I told you about." Samui informed her teammates.

"She packs quite the punch." Omoi said.

"Yes, seems like she is not only proficient in the Gentle Fist…"

About an hour later when everyone had gathered in the H-Halls all the lights dimmed as a spotlight was cast on a man, Samui knew to be the Raikage's right hand Darui. After everyone turned silent Darui started speaking: "Welcome, to the chuunin exams held by Kumogakure." He said loud enough for everyone to hear. "Today will mark the start of this exam. If you have not been told this before I suggest you listen carefully. You will have to complete two tests; the first test will be a written test in the Hall behind me. The second test will be held on Devil's Mountain." After announcing that some of the genin's belonging to Kumo gasped. "You may follow me and take a seat in the next room." Darui said, turning around and opening the doors revealing another huge hall this time though it was not empty but filled with school desks.

After sitting down Samui looked around and noticed that there were a lot of chuunin standing guard around the room. She also noticed that the mirrored walls surrounding the hall were one-way mirrors, which meant that they were being watched.

"You will have fifty minutes to make this test. Everyone starts out with twelve points, such is the maximum amount of points. For every answer you give that is wrong you lose one point. For every question unanswered you lose one point. If you are pathetic enough to be caught cheating you lose three points. If you reach zero points you will be disqualified as will your team. As a team you can only pass if you have more than twenty-one points. The tenth question which is empty on your tests will be worth two points if you answer it correctly. You can turn the tests around and start." Darui said before the sound of dozens of tests being turned upside down was heard through the soon again silent hall.

Samui looked at the questions on the paper each and every question more difficult than the one before it.

'If you are standing three hundred and ninety-six feet away from your target, and the wind is blowing forty miles an hour in the opposite direction and you need to hit the target with a kunai how much strength do you have to apply during the throwing process if you use the Gauntlet-energy-theory as was recorded by Nara Ibakamaru hundred and fifty years ago?' or 'If a gen-jutsu is placed on your person through the means of an A-symmetrical double sealing gen-jutsu seal and you have been poisoned with a chakra-spiking poison farmed from the two-headed adder known to only live in the Peak-hills of Kirigakure, how long would it take for your system to be able to notice it has been sleeping?'

Knowing that despite her intellect she could not know all these answers she started to think back to what Darui had said earlier.

Was it not strange that they were not allowed to cheat yet if they got caught cheating they only lost three points and were not disqualified directly? Perhaps this test was not a written exam at all, perhaps this was a test of deception, a test she was made for. Looking around while using a small gen-jutsu which made it look like she was still reading her test she noticed that most of the aspiring-chuunin were actually trying to answer, some even succeeded in answering the questions.

An idea started to form in her head, first she had to inform her teammates about her discovery and then she had to somehow get those answers from someone who actually knew this stuff. She grabbed the pencil and started to write two sentences, both of them said the same thing.

'You have to cheat to pass this exam.' It read. Ripping the pieces of paper from the test she held them in her hand.

Samui raised her hand, a sign that she wanted to go to the bathroom. She walked past Omoi and Karui and placed the small on their desks unnoticed.

However when she did Darui said loudly, "Seat number twenty-three you fail, and so does your team." As Darui said this three chuunin walked to the genins that had failed and escorted them out.

Upon her return in the hall she made full use of the gen-jutsu that she placed over her eye in the bathroom as to make it seem as if she was looking forward, while in reality she was looking down on the papers to see the answers to the nine questions, succeeding in her efforts she sat down and filled in all the answers, hoping that her team-mates would succeed in doing so as well.

After many more genin teams were sent home Darui announced that it was time for the tenth question. "The next question is a hopeless question. I will now give you the chance to give up on trying to answer this question because if you get it wrong, you will never be allowed to try and become chuunin again." Darui looked every single one of the genin in the eye, causing most of them to shift uncomfortably and some of them to stand up and resign. Darui just stood there for more than five minutes and soon almost half of the teams had given up, the remaining twenty-two teams however were unmoving. "Are all of you sure that you don't want to try another year? Perhaps next time the questions won't be as impossible as this year's." Darui offered but there was no response.

"I see…" Darui said before the stern face he had plastered on his face broke and a small grin appeared. "Then you all pass." Silence was all that met Darui's statement until a young man stood up with an red-face.

"What do you mean 'You all pass!' Where is that tenth question?" he asked undignified.

"The tenth question was answered when you decided to stay here and face it." Darui said before he walked to the door. "Now, follow me for the second part of the exam. We are heading out for the Devil's Mountain." Before anyone got to say something Darui had walked through the door and they had to run to keep up with him.

"Che. I can't believe it was that simple." Karui said.

"Simple, but effective. I am astounded by the amount of people that did not make it through this first test." Samui answered.

Behind them Samui heard another conversation.

"I told you the tenth question would be the only important one, little wonder." She heard a girl voice say.

"Yes, you did, however I had a lot of fun while cheating, it was not something I had ever done before." A boy said. "Besides, everything turned out perfectly fine did it not?" he said.

"It was a risk that was not necessary." Another boy said.

"Okay, I get, you disapprove but there was no danger of them catching me." The first boy said. Samui wondered how these genin knew how the test was going to play out and decided to ask them about in exchange for information.

Turning around, Samui and her team stopped causing the team behind to stop as well. Samui knew right away which team she was dealing with, it was the only team from Konoha. "I am willing to exchange information." Samui said out of the blue.

The first to speak up was the youngest boy. "What do you want to know and what will you exchange it for?" the boy said locking his bright emerald green eyes on to hers making her feel as if this boy would know right away if she were to even consider lying.

"In exchange for knowing how you knew about this test before it had taken place I am willing to give you information about one of the remaining teams of your choice excluding my own team." Samui said.

The boy's green eyes were still staring at her and without blinking he answered "In exchange for information about the team from Kirigakure I am willing to reveal our source of information."

"Okay, you first." She said.

Looking at the Hyuuga girl the Uchiha nodded once and looked back at her green eyes making her feel uncomfortable again "My teammates' grandfather was the designer of this test. As soon as Darui announced that there would be a test she" with this he pointed at the Hyuuga, "told us everything there was to know about this test and it's variations."

Samui nodded. "Thank you." Taking out her notebook she turned the pages until she reached the part where she had written about the team of Kirigakure, it had been one of the most complete observations she had been able to make.

"The team is led by a jounin named Terumi Mei, known for her double bloodline limit allowing her to use lava-release and boil-release. The first genin in their team is a girl by the name of Ayako, no specific clan as far as I know, she specializes in ken-jutsu and suiton-jutsu. The second member is a boy by the name of Noboyuki Hachirou and seems to focus entirely on gen-jutsu. The third member seems to be the most formidable one, Hõzuki Mangetsu he is a member of the seven swordsmen of the mist and wields the sword named Hiramekarei also known as the twin sword of the mist." Samui put the notebook away. "That is all I know about them."

"We should hurry up, we're falling to far behind the rest if we want to keep up." The Hyuuga girl said ending the conversation.

Turning around both teams ran towards the bigger group, ready for the second test, ready for the Demon's mountain.

* * *

><p>"Why are we going to that old place anyways?" Karui asked. "They haven't used those hallowed out mountains in decades."<p>

Karui voiced what Samui was thinking. "It is rather odd to use that maze to house the second test. Unless they have patched the place up it is as good as ready to crumble into pieces above our heads."

"What if the two-tailed demon that lived in those giant mountains still haunts the maze and they are only sending us there so that we may end up as cat-food meaning that we will ne-" Omoi started but never finished because Karui held her sword to his throat.

"Stop doing that!" she said anger apparent in her voice.

"It doesn't matter, we will find out eventually." Samui said effectively ending the discussion.

It didn't take long before Darui stopped and waited for everyone to gather around him. "From here on, people will die." He said, small gasps could be heard but most of the genins remained silent. "You will have to fill these forms which will make sure your villages can't make us responsible for what happens inside these mountains for the next three days." he said while handing out the forms to the genin.

After collecting the filled in forms he continued. "Behind me lies the Demon's Mountain, we have fortified the maze inside it so that it would be able to house this test." Samui looked at Karui, that answered their question about the location. "You will all enter the maze from another entrance point. In the exact middle of the maze you will one of these medallions, each medallion allows you to exit the maze. That is, if you can find the exit. If a team has managed to leave the maze with all their members alive and a medallion you may advance to the finals. We will announce it when a team has advanced to the final. You are allowed to take possession of but one medallion and there will be a total four medallions meaning that only one fifth of all the teams may reach the finals. Are there any questions?" Darui asked looking bored.

"Are we allowed to steal each other's medallions?" A girl asked, Samui remembered her, it was the Tsuchikage's granddaughter.

"Yes, but you are not allowed to take possession of more than one medallion at a time, if yours is stolen you either steal another or go back and hope one of the remaining medallions is still there. Are there any questions left?" he asked. "No? Then you are to follow one of the chuunin and walk to your entrance point."

After following the chuunin Samui and her team stood in front of their entrance point; entrance number nineteen it read. "The real exam starts now." Omoi said softly.

After their chuunin allowed them team Samui entered the maze only to be met by huge grey stone walls that were easily two hundred feet high. The walls were engraved with tiny seals and drawings of huge battles with a demon cat. "I guess our best option is climb up these walls and gain some oversight of this place and then just jump until we reach the middle." Samui said. Receiving two nods from her teammates she ran up the wall, emitting chakra from under her feet to 'glue' herself to the wall but to her surprise she just slid down anyways. "The stone is… it is chakra repelling!" she said astounded.

"Then…, that means we have to find our way the old fashioned way, by walking." Samui said sighing. This was going to be a long three-day mission. 'I can't believe this, this maze is gigantic and there is no way to know where you are without the sky there to guide us. We shall have to leave some sort of sign so we know where we have walked before we walk in circles.' Samui was about to propose that idea before a thunderous 'DOING!' was heard throughout the entire labyrinth.

"Wasn't that the sign that someone had finished already?" Karui asked in disbelief.

"Yes, I believe it was." Samui answered her with a small voice. "We better hurry before more teams finish before us."

- **Eight hours later** -

They were still running through the maze but had yet to see another team. It had been silent so far and they had yet to reach on of their marked walls which meant that they hadn't been running in circles so far.

- **Five hours later** –

After having seen the same walls for hours on end Samui and her team started to feel like they were trapped. "I suggest we just take down these walls!" Karui screamed. Before she punched the wall.

"I don't think that works, Karui." Samui said. "But it can't be much longer before we reach the exact middle, we've been in here for hours without running past the same place twice." She said marking the wall with her kunai, carving a big deep cross in it.

"Let's rest for a little." She offered taking three rice balls out of her backpack. All three genin sat down and started to eat the rice balls. Before long the three genin were ready to go again.

"Uhm… Did you not carve a mark in the wall, Samui?" Omoi asked before putting a new lollipop in his mouth.

"Yes I did." Samui said with a riddled face. "I placed it right… here" she said placing her hand on the wall, it felt warm.

"Che! The walls must be repairing themselves!" Karui yelled in despair. "For all we know we could have been walking around in circles for hours and we didn't even notice it!"

-**Two hours later**-

Samui stood dead still and motioned for the others to do so as well. "Do you hear that?" she asked in a whisper.

"Yes." Both Omoi and Karui answered.

"It must be one of the other teams they are walking towards us, perhaps they have a medallion." Samui used the basic skills of hiding as she seemingly merged with the walls, the same thing happened to Karui and Omoi.

"We are almost there." A tired voice said.

"Well it is about time, I don't know how much longer I could walk in this stupid maze before I go insane." Another voice said.

The voices got closer each passing moment and within a minute three genin were slowly walking in to the ambush that existed out of team Samui.

As the third unknown ninja passed Omoi all three hidden genin made themselves known to their enemy's and with kunai in their hand they appeared behind their targets, none of them fast enough to defend themselves. "Give us your medallion." Karui said with a voice of ice. "Or we will slice open your defenseless little throats."

The three genin looked at each other with frightened eyes. "We... we donthaveanymedallionsyet!" the genin, Karui was threatening, said before wetting himself.

Samui cocked an eye-brow. "Is that so?" she said piercing the white skin of the girl she was holding, causing blood to trickle down the girl's neck, who started to cry.

"Really! I swear it we don't" the third boy screamed. "You can look in our bags and on our person but we don't have it, really, we don't!"

Omoi let his hostage free. "Don't try anything funny or my teammates will behead yours." He said seriously.

Going through all their belongings Omoi stopped his search after a few minutes. "They were speaking the truth, they don't have it." He said.

"I guess this means goodbye then." Karui said lightly while knocking her hostage unconscious. Within seconds all three genin were lying on the ground stripped of their kunai and weapons.

"I can't believe their sensei let them enter in the exam. They were wimps." Karui said with a tone of disgust. "That girl was crying like an academy student that missed her mommy."

"let's just continue." Samui said, and so they renewed their search.

- **One day later** –

A thunderous 'DOING' could be heard echoing through the giant maze. "A second team must have been able to find the exit with a medallion, which means that there are only two more left." Samui said sighing.

They had hardly slept since entering the maze, and all three of them had bags under their eyes.

"Perhaps we should take another break. We will be useless in a fight if we are too tired. I suggest we sleep for three hours, I will take the first shift and stay awake." Samui said hoping the other two would agree, which thankfully they did.

- **Two and a half hours later-**

Omoi was sitting between his two teammates, they were sleeping soundly and Karui was even snoring, something she had never done before.

Sucking on his lollipop was a nice way to pass the time with. Already there had been two teams that had managed to gain ownership of a medallion and get out of this maze; Omoi wondered how they did it.

The first team had only been inside for a minute or two before they got out, which probably meant… which meant what? That they found out how to cheat in this part of the exam as well? Or perhaps they were able to walk through walls.

Walk through walls…

Walk through walls.

Walk through walls! That was how they were going to get their hands on one of the medallions! Taking out a pencil and paper of his backpack he drew an elaborate maze with several entrances and a meeting point in the exact middle of the maze. Using the trick he had just thought of he tried every possible scenario, and just as he thought, he always ended up in the exact middle of the maze or at one of the entrances!

Waking up his teammates Omoi explained his idea. "The trick to get where we need to be is to just follow one wall. If we keep following the wall on our right we will either end up at one of the entrances or in the exact Center of this maze!" Omoi said. "It can take a long time before we succeed but at least it beats walking around like a headless chicken."

Karui and Samui looked at impressed at this simple theory. "I can't believe we hadn't thought of that sooner. Ok let's fasten our pace and we might actually still have a shot at winning this." Samui said while thinking about the one million the Raikage had placed on their team's chances for making it to the final.

They started to run following the wall on their right, before long however they heard footsteps coming their way and stopped. "Same tactic." Samui said as she seemingly merged with the wall behind her, kunai ready in her hand.

"I can't believe our luck; we actually managed to get one of those medallions without running into any competition!" A big boy said cheerfully." All we need to do now is to find the exit." He said looking at his teammate.

"Don't worry Daimaru, with my jutsu we know exactly where to go, I can't believe I didn't think about it sooner!" the girl said slightly agitated. "We could have been out of here yesterday if I had thought about it better."

"Yes… you could have saved us a lot of time if you only had used your head!" another girl said, Samui recognized her from before she had dragged her teammate with her when he was drooling all over her.

As soon as the three genin with the medallion got in the middle of their ambush Omoi, Karui and Samui flickered away and attacked the opposing team of genin. However unlike the last team they actually defended themselves.

Samui had her target cornered. "Daimaru, give up now and I will let you leave this maze with your head attached to your body." She threatened, but the boy didn't even blink. "I will give you to the count of three before I will attack."

"One…"

Neither Samui nor Daimaru moved a single muscle. They were just staring at each other as their teammates were already in heated battles.

"Two…"

Samui grabbed the hilt of her short blade, ready to slash her way through the huge genin.

"Three!"

Drawing her tantõ, causing it to whistle in the air she dashed forward, but to her dismay Daimaru grinned "Formation of the stone body" he said victoriously as his skin seemed to turn to stone, coloring it in an almost brown grey.

Her blade hit the hardened stone skin, ready to draw blood but it failed miserably. Not even a scratch was left on Daimaru's body. "My turn." He said as he raised his arms in the air and jumped in her direction. Coming down he seemed ready to body slam Samui.

But Samui was prepared, the boy might be strong and durable but he was slow. Making a simple bunshin of herself and placing it in front of her she threw down a smoke bomb and placed a genjutsu on Daimaru while using a henge on herself, it was not her favorite tactic but the situation demanded it.

Running toward Daimaru, who had missed slamming her bunshin but thought himself victorious, she let herself trip. "Daimaru!" she yelled while looking like one of the Iwa-genin. Daimaru turned around and caught her. "thank you, Daimaru." She said short-breathed while guiding her lightning-natured chakra through her short blade. Just a second more and she would be able to pierce the fortified skin of Daimaru. As he helped her get up she could feel the chakra building up in the blade. Ready! She stabbed the genin with her tantõ in his spleen, drawing blood from an enemy for the first time. Causing the genin to scream in pain and holding his hands to his side.

"Give up!" She yelled as hard as she could while placing her short blade, Culicidae, on Daimaru's neck. "Give up or I will kill him before he bleeds empty." Samui was slightly shocked at her own actions. She knew that this was a part of the exams but she had not expected for it to come to her so easily. To think that she was able to kill a boy, not much older than she was herself, for the sake of a place in the finals of an exam was slightly alarming.

The two genin that were still able to fight looked at each other and nodded. "We will give you the medallion if you allow us to treat him right now." The girl on the right said holding up the medallion.

Samui nodded in affirmation and stepped away from the still bleeding Daimaru while Omoi was given the medallion.

After receiving the medallion team Samui darted away. "Let's try using the same tactic again to find the exit." Karui said while running.

- **Three hours later - **

Her legs were starting to get tired but she had to go on for just a bit longer for at the end of this extremely long pathway was the exit, bright light inviting them. As soon as they all ran out of the mountain a thunderous sound was heard echoing. "Congratulations are in order, for my favorite team was the third to cross this border!" Their sensei cheered.

"Che! Did you have doubts sensei?" Karui asked.

"Fool, ya fool!" Kirabi rapped, as if insulted.

The man standing next to Kirabi-sensei bowed his head "Congratulations with your passing of the first two exams."

"So… I wonder which other teams have managed to get themselves in the finals next month." Samui asked looking around.

"We will find out once the official matches will be announced." The man, Otoi, said before turning around. "If you will all please follow me." He said politely. "You will be allowed to rest after you have deposited your medallion and have received your number for the finals."

In silence team Kirabi followed, though if one listened carefully one could hear Kirabi mumbling and see him writing in his notebook.

* * *

><p>- <strong>Team twelve-<strong>

After passing the second part of the exam in a record time of three minutes and eight seconds, if they were to go by the information the chuunin that had awaited them had given them, team twelve went to the Raikage's office to draw their number for the final exam. "That building is bigger than the hokage's administrative building back in Konoha." Yuugi said observing the huge building that was built into the humongous mountain.

"To be exact it is two point eighty-nine times as big. There are supposed to be thousands of hiding places under the mountain as well which are presumably accessible through multiple unknown to us entrances." Koh said citing his third year's textbook

"Yes, it is most certainly a very impressive building. They are lucky that there are no earthquakes around these lands. But I wonder why I haven't seen any children on the streets here." Harry mused out loud.

"That's because Kumo has separated its village in two, a part with ninja and a part without. This is the part where only people who own shops or restaurants live and ninja, they did that because during times of war they had to make sure the civilians stayed safe and together." Kakashi explained. "It is not unlike how Konoha has districts for the clans and shopping districts for the shop owner and the other districts which are meant for the civilians to live in."

"But Kakashi-sensei, would it not be safer for the villagers to not life in a ninja village that is so easily found? Would it not be better to hide their village like they hid the hidden waterfall village?" Yuugi asked.

"Sometimes you have to look underneath the underneath. Not everything is as simple as it looks Yuugi." Kakashi said cryptically. After getting a blank look from her he continued. "What makes you think this village is not as well hidden as the hidden waterfall?"

"Because we were able to walk from Konoha straight to Kumo without getting lost, there were even signs that said how much more we had to walk before reaching Kumo…" Yuugi said, not understanding what Kakashi was getting at.

"I think Kakashi-sensei means that they lifted or blocked off some of genjutsu's and fake roads Kumo is known for using; did you not read 'The past, present and future of the big five'?" Koh said shocked. "Menumi Mei-sensei gave it to us in third year, it was the most complete textbook written on the subject!"

At the mentioning of their old sensei Harry's eyes twitched and mumbled. "Drunk psycho bitch."

"Did you say something?" Kakashi asked, smiling with his eye.

"Nothing, Kakashi." Harry lied.

"We have arrived, please follow me inside. The Raikage is waiting for you." The Kumo-chuunin told them politely.

"Wow, we're actually going to meet the Raikage in person!" Yuugi said dreamily.

Kakashi looked at Yuugi and softly whispered something in her ear causing her to turn beef-red before she turned around and faced her sensei, her eye was twitching. "Sensei, if you want to have children someday I suggest never to say such a thing again." She advised him threatening.

Kakashi backed away. "Sure. Sure, calm down." He said trying to prevent Yuugi from lashing out at him.

"Hmm" Yuugi huffed before resuming following the Kumo-chuunin.

Sighing in relief, Kakashi followed as well.

After walking the twenty-nine staircases they finally reached the Raikage's floor. "Hello Konoha genins and Hatake Kakashi." A woman said. "I am the Raikage's assistant and on the Raikage's orders must ask you to wait for a moment until he calls for you."

Acting as a proper jounin-sensei Kakashi nodded and answered for his team. "That won't be a problem, we shall wait here."

The assistant motioned for the four to sit on the couches that were in the hall. "You can sit there while waiting." She said before turning around and entering the Raikage's office.

It took eight minutes before she returned again. "The Raikage is ready to receive you now."

Walking in a line they all entered the room and were impressed with the view the windows provided over the village of Kumo. Sitting behind his desk the Raikage looked up from his paperwork. "So this is the team that managed to come out of the maze alive with a medallion first?" the Raikage asked greeting them. "Not at all what I'd expected." He said a bit disappointed. "The maze was designed to keep you in there for a minimum of fourteen hours; we've used it for decades and not even my own team managed to be faster than sixteen hours. Enlighten me, how did you get out of there so fast?" An undefinable glint was visible in the stern eyes of the dark-skinned Kage.

Kakashi drew a breath to answer but was beaten to it but Harry, surprising his teammates. "I am sorry, Raikage-sama but that would be telling, now wouldn't it?" Harry said surprising the Raikage.

The Raikage's face seemed to contort in anger before he started to laugh. "Heh... I like you kid, you have got spunk. I guess you've been hanging out with the old monkey! He's also always so tightlipped." The Raikage said referring to the Third Hokage.

Harry just nodded as an answer.

"Well, if you don't want to talk about that, just come forth and grab one of the papers that is within this bag and tell me which number it is."

The first one to put his hand in the bag was Koh, taking out his paper he looked on it and told the Raikage "I drew number five." Yuugi went after Koh and drew number three. After which Harry walked forward and put his hand in the bag drawing number eleven.

"Well, all three of you have now have gotten your numbers which means you'll find out who you fight the day of the exam. Prepare yourselves well in the coming month. You are allowed to make use of our training grounds during your stay here and enjoy our full hospitality."

"Thank you Raikage-sama." Kakashi said, bowing deeply. "But we will return to Konoha for the time between now and the finals." Looking at his students he added joyfully "After seeing who they will be up against I have decided to give them one more training trip."

All three the genins faces turned pale after hearing that causing the Raikage to laugh again. "Be sure to be back in exactly thirty-one day so you will be able to hear the announcement for the finals."

* * *

><p>Team twelve, after leaving Kumo, immediately started their training. Kakashi made two clones of himself and divided his attention over all his students. Taking each of them to a separate place telling them all the same thing.<p>

"From now on you are on your own; your teammates can't help you in the upcoming fights and training, you might even have to face them in battle. You will be training with me for the next twenty-five days, you will bleed, you will cry, you will be unable to stand up and you will get stronger. Prepare yourself because I won't train you like I normally do; I will train you as if you are an ANBU-trainee. Lesson number one; Killing intent." Kakashi said in a low voice before unleashing a huge amount of killing intent.

* * *

><p>On the second day, after letting his students sleep for six hours he threw a bucket of ice-cold water over his sleeping students. "Stand up, during your second lesson I won't let you slack off. Come here and put this piece of cloth over your eyes. During the next twelve hours you will have to make sure my shuriken, kunai and other projectiles won't hit you. You are not allowed to use your eyes, use your ears, use your skin to feel the air move use your sense to feel my spikes in killing intent but most off al make sure… you don't die." Kakashi ordered his students. Before unleashing a flurry of ninja weapons.<p>

* * *

><p>On the third day Kakashi let his students heal from the many wounds on their body after waking them up with a bucket of ice cold water by only giving them mild training. One thousand push- and sit ups. And two hundred rounds around the mountain before lunch.<p>

The three genin, after eating lunch, all were dead on their feet. And so Kakashi decided to let them sleep and recover till morning came.

* * *

><p>On the fourth day Kakashi started by once again waking up his students with a bucket of ice cold water, "Lesson number four, when fighting against an enemy you have to be able to predict their movements. I will poke you with this stick until you've learned to predict my movements and stop me." Kakashi said.<p>

That day the only one who was not entirely covered in bruises was Harry who had used sharingan continuously throughout the exercise, but not even he had been bruise-free.

* * *

><p>On the fifth day he did not make the three genin do a lot, all they had to do were their kata's and normal training.<p>

For their hard work he gave them a present. "You have been given it you all. Now in these woods it can get lonely so I have brought you some company." Kakashi said while giving each student two snow-whit rabbits.

* * *

><p>On the twelfth day his students were all awake the same time as Kakashi and the latter did not manage to throw a bucket of ice cold water over his students' sleeping head.<p>

* * *

><p>On the fifteenth day Kakashi made his students bring him their rabbits.<p>

"Lesson number nine; making sacrifices." Kakashi said gravely. "You have three seconds to decide which rabbit you'll safe from death." Kakashi looked at his students, knowing how difficult this decision could be and how heartbreaking the next assignment was. "Good you saved your rabbit. Now kill the other one."

* * *

><p>On the twenty-fifth day, the last day he was going to spend training with his students he took them all on a separate mission. "Your mission is simple. You have but one objective, find your way to Kumogakure." He said stabbing his students in their thigh and dispersing in smoke.<p>

To himself he said, with a heavy heart. "Lesson number twelve: survival." Before following his students from a safe distance.

* * *

><p>Harry stared wide-eyed at the wound that had been inflicted by his sensei. Muttering to himself Harry didn't bother to notice the hellish pains that were going through his body. "I cannot believe he went that far… that is the eighth time he has made an attempt on my life in one week!" Green chakra started to collect in Harry's hand as he started to heal himself.<p>

"Thank you, Rin-sensei." Harry said, forever thankful for the skills he had been taught by his previous sensei.

After his wound had healed sufficiently Harry decided to take it easy and just body-pop to Kumogakure and relax in one of the warm springs in the mountains.

* * *

><p>Yuugi screamed in agony as the kunai that had been embedded in her thigh was pulled out. "That bastard!" she seethed. Knowing only the bare basics of healing, after forced lessons from Rin, Yuugi opened her backpack . Searching in her bag it took only a few moments before she got hold of what she needed. Grabbing the scroll she rolled it open for the first part and was glad that Rin had made these scrolls for them. Placing the scroll over her wound, causing blood to drench the chakra-sensitive paper she activated the sealing seal, green chakra was released and healed the stab wound.<p>

"It's not perfect but it shall have to." Yuugi said to herself. "Now, to find Kumogakure…" activating her byakugan she scanned the area she was in, in a radius of one kilometer. "Ah there." She whispered before jumping in the nearest tree and dashing off.

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><p>Koh looked at the wound that was made by Kakashi just moments ago. His kikai bugs had already pushed out the kunai and were now cleaning the wound. "Feiku Fetsuniku-no jutsu" Koh mumbled sacrificing few dozen bugs to act as his own flesh and skin.<p>

Using his kikai bugs he soon found the female bug that he had placed on his teammate Uchiha Haru, sensing that the kikai-bug was miles and miles away Koh guessed that the young boy must already be in Kumo by now. Following the invisible trail Koh vanished from the open field he was standing just moments earlier.

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><p>Samui was going over her collected data in her notebook; from what she had gathered the first to have gotten out to the maze was the team from Konoha. 'They probably used the Hyuuga to see the maze and use the Aburame's bugs to collect the medallion seeing as the can fly.' She theorized to the best of her limited information she had on the Konoha team, she had not seen them since the start of the second exam even though she had tried to find them in the days after it.<p>

It was not until a few hours ago she was even aware of the fact that at least one of them was in the village again.

* * *

><p>Steam was softly caressing her face while the warm water massaged the rest of her body. She had really needed this bath after the very taxing three weeks she had had. Kirabi-sensei had trained them so hard that she was not sure if she would ever recuperate, such long training days were not healthy, she was sure of that.<p>

The warm springs were exactly the thing she needed, it was quiet, there were no children or other women present at the moment making her the only one in the warm pool of water.

That was until a boy was angrily walking over the poolside, an agitated look sculpted by the narrowed eyes and somewhat angry looking eye-brows, though through the thick steam she couldn't clearly see that boy. "Just because I look like a six year old doesn't mean I have to go to the bloody women's and children's pool!" the boy complained loudly before jumping in the warm water.

"And why is that?" Samui asked, amused by the fact that a six year old boy thought himself to be men enough to join the real men.

The boy looked around, looking where her voice came from. "I'm a here." Samui said waving her arm. The boy saw her and swam to her.

"Hey, you're that genin that told us about the Kirigakure team!" he said surprised with widened emerald green eyes, recognizing her.

It took a moment before she realized herself that this boy was the same boy with the emerald green eyes from Konoha. "Yes, that is me." Samui confirmed. "So, they did not allow you in the men's pool?" she asked, teasing the child.

The boy eye's narrowed. "Yes." He said his tone agitated again.

"Well I am glad, or we wouldn't have been able to take this bath together and talk." Samui said hoping the boy wouldn't open up to her. Her mother had always said she was good with children, so this boy should not be an exception.

"Hmm, I guess." He said. After a few seconds of silence the boy suddenly laughed. "I don't know who your name, yet here we are, in a bath, both naked." The Uchiha stretched out his arm to give her a hand. "My name is Uchiha Haru, but my friends call me Harry." He said.

Accepting his hand Samui shook it and said her own name. "So, what do you think of Kumo? Do you like the village?" she asked.

Uchiha Haru looked thoughtful for a second. "I guess I do, the air smells really good here, it reminds me of home." The boy said those last words with a somewhat pained look.

"Do you miss your home?" Samui asked kindly, feeling sorry for the young child, to have to be away from home for such an extended time must be hard.

"More than you can imagine." He answered solemnly. "But let's not talk about that. Tell me how the exam went for you?" he asked with childlike enthusiasm.

"We passed the second exam." Samui answered, yes this conversation was going perfectly, and she didn't even have to bring up the exam herself. She would get her information easily out of this child; all she had to do was show some goodwill. "We were the third to get out of there. How about your team, I guess you passed for you are still in Kumo."

Haru started to lie on his back. "Yes we did, we were the firsts to get out actually." He said as if he wasn't giving away valuable information.

"Really, your team was the first to pass the exam?" she had suspected it, because with a Hyuuga in your team you practically had a map of the maze.

"Yeah, we were lucky I guess." He said a small grin on his face. "What about your team? How did you manage to get out in time?"

Samui played with the thought of not telling the boy the truth but remembered the way she had felt earlier, this boy would know it immediately if she was not telling the truth. "We got lucky as well, we ran into a team that had a medallion and we managed to beat them." She answered truthfully.

"Wow that is pretty impressive, because paths were really narrow. So how did you manage to beat a team, and which team was it? I'm sure you were like POW and BAM" the Uchiha said making wild erratic movements.

"Yes, yes it was something like that." She said amused by the child's antics. Before the boy looked at her with his big green eyes.

"No really, tell me what happened." Haru said.

"Let's just say that I made them an offer they could not resist." She smiled wryly.

"I see." The Uchiha said. "So tell me about your teammates and you, what are your names and such? That guy in your team looks really cool, you know with the bleached hair and the constant sucking on his strawberry flavored lollipop and he had really cool shoes, because the laces are tied really funny making this zigzag pattern."

Samui's eyes narrowed slightly. That boy must be more observant than he lets on to know all those details after meeting Omoi only once very briefly. "His name is Omoi, and yes he is kind of cool." Samui said carefully, she had to dose here information just right, too much could be dangerous too little and he would notice that she was withholding information on purpose and that would make this conversation useless. "My other teammate´s name is Karui, she is really funny, and I bet you´d like her." Samui said not revealing anything that could endanger her team. "What about your team, Uchiha Haru?"

The boy smiled and started talking. "Well there is me and Koh and Yuugi, Koh is really serious and is really strong and Yuugi… well she is a girl." The boy said seriously.

'How could someone this naïve be a genin at such a young age?' she wondered. "Really? What does that entail precisely, being a girl?" Samui asked with a hint of humor.

The boy looked at her incredulously." You don't know what it means to be a girl?" he asked as if he saw water burning. "But you are a girl yourself!"

Samui couldn't hold her laughter and started to laugh so much that it actually hurt her stomach. "Oh I shouldn't laugh, still have sore muscles from training." she said trying to calm down.

"I should go, it's time for lunch." The Uchiha said grabbing his towel. "See you in the finals, Samui." He said waving.

"Goodbye Uchiha Haru." Samui said.

"You can call me Harry; all my friends call me Harry." The boy said sweetly before leaving.

* * *

><p>Samui put her notebook down. Harry. The boy was interesting to say the least, on the one hand he seemed incredibly childish and playful but on the other, like when they had discussed trading information the boy was everything but playful.<p>

So what was that boy really? Was he strong? Was he intelligent? What could make Konoha promote such a young, and dare she say it? Innocent child to genin?

Perhaps it was because this was an Uchiha, who have been said to have been killed, massacred by one of their own. Was the sharingan that powerful that even a child not even half her age could be a strong shinobi? Samui doubted that to be the case, so there had to be another reason.

And then it hit her… what had the boy said again? 'Just because I look like a six year old…' Yes perhaps that had some merit, perhaps this was not a six year old boy at all, perhaps this boy was actually much older, and could it be possible? Was this perhaps all one big game of shadows and mirrors?

Deciding that she would not be able to solve the riddle that was Uchiha 'Harry' Haru she decided to just try and rest her mind and body more. She had to be in tip top shape tomorrow for tomorrow it would start; the final exam before she would become chuunin.

* * *

><p>Loud cheering could be heard in the entire village; Kumogakure was host to the legendary chuunin exams. It was while loud cheerful noises were heard in the Raikage's tower that the man was sitting behind his desk. Stacks of paper were obstructing the beautiful calming view over Kumo but that did not bother the powerful Raikage.<p>

What was actually bothering the man was that after last night, which marked the arrival of the Hokage and Tsuchikage he had not been able to talk to his brother Kirabi about the bet they had placed on the only team in the finals from Kumo. He wanted to know their chances. So he could place a bet against them if necessary, especially after seeing how smug the Hokage had looked while talking about his own team.

Not that he had any time left to search for his brother because he had announcements to make, places to be and people to meet, and not to forget genin promotion papers to gather. It was with that list in his mind that the Raikage jumped out of the windows, leaving behind a tired looking assistant who sighed and got too work on getting some new windows installed.

* * *

><p>It didn't take long before the Raikage took place on his rightful seat right between the Tsuchikage and Hokage.<p>

"Raikage-dono, it seems like this chuunin exam has gathered quite a lot of visitors this time." The Hokage said to him.

"Yes, my villagers have been anticipating this event for years." He answered.

"For years you say? Why is that?" the Tsuchikage asked, his tone clipped.

With a proud look on his face the Raikage answered "Because, for the first time my brother has taken it on him to train a genin team."

"You mean that you let _him_ train genin. How far Kumo has fallen for weapons to be dulled for the purpose of teaching." The Tsuchikage said with a look of disdain.

The Raikage's face contorted in anger but he reigned himself in. "Not all Kage let their weapons be turned into killers without human bonds."

"Is it not time for the announcements to be made?" The third Hokage said, clearly trying to change the subject.

A decided to let the discussion be for what it was and stood up, within seconds the crowds in the huge arena turned silent as all faces were now looking at him. "Welcome to the A-Arena." He said loudly before the crowds started to cheer and scream in excitement but it didn't take long before A resumed his speech. "We have gathered here today for the special events that are the Chuunin exams. Already have these aspiring chuunin had to face despair. Already have these aspiring chuunin have to face the brutal truth of what it means to be a ninja." Everyone in the arena was silent, not even the youngest of children made unwanted noises. "But they have yet to face the onslaught that is, THE FINAL EXAM!" the Raikage all but yelled. And again the crowds were roaring loudly.

"Twelve aspiring chuunin, each genin representing his own country, his own village, his own clan and last but not least his own honor. Twelve genin that I will now introduce."

From Kirigakura trained by Terumi Mei I want a warm welcome for Meizu, his brother Gozu and Mangetsu" The Raikage announced as the three boys walked to the center of the arena under polite applauding.

"Team two is from Iwakagure and trained by none other than the son of the third Tsuchikage Kitsuchi, I want a warm welcome for Kurotsuchi, Hiroku and Piu." Again the crowds applauded politely, but not too enthusiastic.

"Team number three is from Konohagakure and trained by the infamous Hatake Kakashi I want a warm welcome for Yuugi, Haru and Koh." The Raikage clapped in his hands as a sign of good sport after which the crowds followed.

As the crowd turned silent yet again he continued. "From our very own village Kumogakure trained by my own brother Kirabi is Samui, Karui and Omoi give them a warm welcome." Before the Raikage even finished his sentence the crowd went insane, whistling and chanting their names as if they were celebrities.

"Our first battle will be between Meizu from Kirigakure and Kurotsuchi from Iwakagure. All other contestants will reside in the contestant booth. From here on, my right hand, Darui will be the judge." The Raikage said as he sat down.

"Looks like your granddaughter is the first to showcase her abilities, Tsuchikage-dono." The hokage said folding his hands in his lap. "I always find it inspiring to see a young ninja dream so vividly, makes me think of my own young years."

"Yes, though by the looks of it she won't have to put a lot of effort in it."

"Ah, but how will she showcase her abilities and strategic mind if she does not show it to us?" the Hokage asked.

"Just watch." The Tsuchikage answered shortly.

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><p><strong>I hope this chapter met your expectations; if so tell me in a review; if not tell me in a review! Indifferent? tell me in a review!... just review...<strong>

**Next chapter the battles will start! Still haven't written all of them, so ideas and hopes are welcome.**


	23. The Akanbe kid

AN: Hello dear readers, thank you for your amazing feedback last chapter, hopefully you guys like this chapter as well. At the end of the chapter (in my second AN) I will answer some reviews. I didn't get to answer them through pm's because my fanfiction didn't let me login... so yeah..

I'd Also like to mention that A, is the Raikage, it is a name... I hope this clears any and all confusion about that.

Have fun, feel free to google the word Akanbe, it might prove usefull if you wish to understand the chapter's title.

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><p><strong>Chapter 22: the Akanbe kid<strong>

A looked at the arena, it was beautiful, truly the best arena ever built in the land of lightning. It had been a present from the old Hokage, his father, to him when he had been chosen to succeed him. The A-Arena had not been used before this day seeing as how he had not been the Raikage for long yet, it had been three years. Three years since the council decided that after the failing of the 'Hyuuga kidnapping' his father was too shameful for the village.

Looking down A could see, in the middle of the arena, his right hand Darui who would judge this contest, the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage and her opponent Meizu.

Darui looked between both contestants "There are no rules other than that the fight must be kept within the walls of this arena. On the count of three you are allowed to start." Raising his arm the entire crowd silenced, waiting for the fight to start, last bets were made while both genin prepared them selves. As Darui's hand went down and he finished counting both genin jumped forward.

Meizu, using his gauntlet that dripped poison, tried to swipe Kurotsuchi who daftly evaded the piece of metal on the boy's arm and got behind him. Meizu turned around in one smooth motion and used the momentum to reach the Iwa-genin, which sadly failed.

Grabbing the boy's arm Kurotsuchi pushed him down and with her knee managed to break Meizu's arm which in turn made the limb hang loosely as if it was made of rubber.

Oonoki, the Tsuchikage looked at the fight without much interest. "That boy is not worthy of being in the finals, it is a disgrace my granddaughter has to waste her time on a genin such as him." He complained.

"Just keep watching Tsuchikage." A said, restraining his rising anger at the annoying kage, no use in starting a war with Iwa again just because he couldn't keep his anger at bay. Oonoki looked at the Raikage with narrowed eyes but didn't bother to respond.

Meizu, now with one arm less he could use looked desperately around him, looking for the already disappeared girl.

"Give up now, Meizu. Or you will lose that arm completely." Kurotsuchi said appearing behind the boy again with a kunai in her hand which was aimed at the shoulder of the other genin who was lying on the ground face down after being kneed in the back by Kurotsuchi.

"How kind of her, to give this boy the option of giving up." The Hokage said pleased. "It seems, Tsuchikage, that the old ways are slowly crumbling."

"Don't spout your will of fire nonsense in my presence, Hokage, we both know that there is no room for softness in real battle, my granddaughter knows that." Oonoki chided Sarutobi "But this is merely a chuunin-exam, blood does not need to spill to become chuunin, it is insight like that that makes Kurotsuchi worthy of becoming a chuunin."

A decided to tune the two old man out while focusing on what went down in the arena ring.

"two, give up or this kunai will destroy your cartilage making sure you will never be able to use that arm again."

Meizu tried to move but with one arm broken and Kurotsuchi sitting on top of the boy he couldn't do much. "I surrender." The Kiri-nin cursed out.

"Good decision." The kunoichi said with a grin while standing up and looking at Darui who in turn nodded and declared her the winner of the first match.

* * *

><p>"That match was a total bore; he was no competition for her at all." Karui said. Turning to look at Samui she continued. "Your match better be more entertaining than that or I will fall asleep."<p>

Samui laughed on the inside at the brashness of her teammate. "Don't worry Karui, I am sure my match will be very entertaining, I am fighting a Hyuuga after all."

"Che! You will beat her to a pulp before she even lays a finger on you, have you seen how small that girl is?" Karui boasted completely forgetting about the power display Hyuuga Yuugi had made earlier before the first exam.

"Good luck Samui." Omoi said in his usual depressing self.

"Thank you, Omoi, Karui." Samui said before walking to the middle of the arena as her name was announced.

Just behind her she could hear the Hyuuga getting wished good luck as well from her teammates. Standing still as she stood in front of Darui the Hyuuga girl stood on the other side of Darui. "There are no rules other than that the fight must be kept within the walls of this arena. On the count of three you are allowed to start." Raising his arm the entire crowd silenced, waiting for the fight to start. As Darui's hand went down and he finished counting Samui dashed forward, her short blade glistering in the sunlight, and the crowds erupted in noise.

As soon as Samui had moved Yuugi dropped into her fighting stance showing the famed first kata of the gentle fist. Samui stopped moving as a smile graced her face. "Before we start I want to wish you good luck in your endeavors into becoming a chuunin."

Yuugi's body seemed to relax at those words as she raised her body while looking to the ground. "I am grateful for those kind words, but I do not believe I will need any luck, I will win this fight with skill, and skill alone." Yuugi slowly raised her head. "I will give one piece of advice." Yuugi's eyes snapped open, the famed byakugan obviously activated, as she thrust an open hand into the air "Don't stand still while fighting me!"

Suddenly Samui was hit by an invisible force that knocked the air out of her and pushed her back. Yuugi dashed forward and used another thrust to keep Samui occupied.

Samui was shocked by the speed the girl was displaying, Hyuuga's were supposed to fight stationary, waiting for opponents to come near, at least that is what the textbooks said, she had read them again just to make sure. With Culicidae in her hand she readied herself for the oncoming attack. Yuugi, before she reached Samui, thrust her open palm in the air, causing a ripple like effect pushing Samui causing her feet to slid over the ground. 'She is using her chakra in some condensed form and pushes it out of her palm to hit me from a distance, so far she has used it only from three meters away, is that her limit?'

Distancing herself from Yuugi, Samui ran up the wall and started to throw her kunai at the Hyuuga, who in turn deflected them all with ease. Samui decided to switch up what she was using to maim her opponent. That was why she switched to her kunai with explosive notes, throwing three of them around the Hyuuga making sure she couldn't deflect all three she activated the explosive notes causing a huge explosion.

Using the explosion Samui started to collect chakra. Using chakra for jutsu's always took her more time than she wish it'd take. However before she even got to making hand seals Yuugi dashed out of the smoke in a straight line towards her. Within moments Yuugi was standing on the wall just under her while she had just finished her last seal. "Raikyuu no jutsu!" Samui said with a small smile as a ball of lightning, the size of a soccer ball, formed between her hands. Throwing the ball of lightning Samui saw a smile forming on the face of the Hyuuga.

Dodging the ball of lightning by jumping over it Yuugi said "I warned you not to stand still!"

'Shit.' Samui thought as the genin in front of her lifted both her arms and bent her knees. "Eight Divination Signs, One-Hundred and Twenty-six Palms of the divine hand." the girl whispered as she started moving faster than Samui could keep up with. "Two strikes." She yelled hitting Samui twice with her fingertips. "Four strikes." Samui tried to get away but she couldn't get out of this barrage. "Eight strikes." Somehow Yuugi managed to accelerate her movements even more. "Sixteen strikes." Samui could feel the access to her chakra starting to disappear. "Thirty-two strikes!" by now she couldn't access her chakra in her lower body anymore so she started to slip away from the wall. "Sixty-four strikes!" within two seconds the Hyuuga managed to completely seal off all her tenketsu points, from here on she couldn't use her chakra.

As Yuugi ended her barrage on Samui, Samui could feel that the chakra that had once made sure that she was plastered on the wall was gone. It was the moment she realized that, that she started to fall. "You have lost this battle, Samui." Yuugi watched Samui fall down and to make sure that Samui would not recover from her fall easily she used another open palm thrust to accelerate Samui's decend.

Samui reached the ground even faster than she had imagined and she was sure that at least one of her ribs had broken. From where she was lying now the Hyuuga girl looked gigantic as she slowly walked down the wall, graciously. "I told you I would not need luck, I will beat you with skill, and skill alone. What will you do now that you have no more chakra to acces, have sprained your ankle and have broken two ribs? What is someone like you able to do to someone like me?" Yuugi´s eyes were slowly turning normal again. "I don't even need my byakugan to handle you anymore."

Samui was trying to stand up as graciously as she could without showing her current weaknesses but failed spectacularly. Yuugi however scoffed."Hm, pathetic."

* * *

><p>"That girl, she is strong." The Tsuchikage said. "It seems that despite not being from the main house she was able to become strong, stronger than most, she might even be strong enough to be able to stand up to my Kurotsuchi."<p>

The Hokage looked at the scene that was unfolding in the arena with pride filled eyes.

"Don't think Samui has lost this battle just because she cannot use her Chakra." A commented. "I have placed a one million bet on this girl not because she excels in her nin-jutsu or tai-jutsu, but because she has mastered 'the Dance of the eight deaths. If the Hyuuga comes out of this fight with all her organs intact it would be a miracle."

"A genin that knows the Dance of the eight deaths… how extraordinary, but don't think Miss Hyuuga will be easy to land a hit on, she has proved to know when to wait and when to strike, obvious signs for the strategic mind of a chuunin, and don't forget she used her Kaiten on the perfect moment, I'd say that the odds are in Miss Hyuuga's favor." Sarutobi said sitting on the tip of his seat.

'If it comes down to the powerful Gentle fist against the deadly Dance of the eight deaths I am not sure who would win.' The hokage thought. 'But the will of fire burns brightly in Yuugi, that might give her the upper hand.'

* * *

><p>Yuugi was standing next to the pitiful pile that was Samui, she had closed of all her useable tenketsu points so that meant that this girl would be useless for the coming hour. "Give up and walk away from this fight while you still can." Yuugi said as Samui was picking herself up of the ground.<p>

"I will not… break this easily." Samui said taking hold of her tantõ again.

"If that is your wish." Yuugi whispered. "I advise you to pick up your game though, little projectiles are useless against me. I see all within this arena, you cannot surprise me." Byakugan coming to live again. "I shall grant you the honor to face defeat while I go all out."

'I need to make sure I disable her as fast as possible, if my training has taught me one thing it is that no ninja fights without an ace up his sleeve. So what is her ace?' Yuugi used her Byakugan to search through the equipment Samui had on her, 'ten smoke bombs, useless. Ninja wire, twenty meter, could be useful but with my sight I would never activate any wired traps. Short blade, strapped on her back. That must be it!'

Samui walked backwards for three steps distancing herself from Yuugi and grabbed her tantõ. "May the lord have mercy on you, for 'Culicidae' has none." Samui said as she dropped into a stance closing her eyes, this was her chance!

Yuugi aimed at Samui and with an open palm released her one-palm-strike, however unlike previous attempts this one failed as Samui ducked and dashed forward. "The dance of the eight Deaths; First dance; Dance of the open throat." She announced as her short blade started to make double circle motions while getting increasingly faster.

"Swords can't touch me!" Yuugi said while making full use of the training Kakashi had given her just last month. Using her fast reflexes Yuugi evaded the first slashes which were aimed at her throat and even blocked some others with her hands using Chakra to repel the sharp blade.

"Second dance: Walz of the jugular's bloody fountain!" Samui yelled as her movements suddenly changed, no longer was she making circular motions but used her short blade as a knife and made slashing movements. 'it doesn't matter, as long as I am faster I can always dodge. And If I can't dodge I could always use kaiten, though I am starting to run out of chakra, having to use kaiten to get out of the explosion unscathed took more out of me than I'd expected.'

Samui's second dance hadn't left a mark on Yuugi who had been evading or blocking all the Kumo-nin's attempts at her life.

"Third dance; Dance of the splintered spleen!" Samui changed the way she was holding her short blade again, holding it as if it was a spear she kept trying to stab Yuugi, who was still evading the girl.

'It is like she is getting faster, and those stabbing motions take more chakra to block, I need to stop defending as soon as she has an opening and attack.' Yuugi thought while evading and blocking the sharp blade.

Yuugi stopped the blade from reaching her spleen with her right hand using a small push of her chakra but the sword managed to draw blood from her hand, which shocked the Hyuuga. 'how is this possible, I used the perfect amount of chakra to stop her?' however Yuugi was not given time to think as Samui suddenly stopped and changed the way she held her short blade once again.

"Fourth dance; Dance of the drowned lung!" she screamed in trancelike state. Moving even faster Samui got close, too close to Yuugi as she was taken by surprise.

'I don't understand it, it is like I am fighting a different person each time she changes her dance, and each successive dance is stronger, faster, I need to stop her now or she will manage to stab me for real.' Yuugi thought before emitting chakra from all her tenketsu and spinning around. "Kaiten!"

Backing off Samui waited until the spinning stopped. "Fifth dance: Twist of the snapped spine!" she yelled as Yuugi stopped spinning.

'Right where I want you!' Yuugi said in her head as she had seen that Samui hadn't moved since she had started her kaiten. 'I may not have enough chakra for one more kaiten but I have enough for this!'

Yuugi waited until Samui was only inches away from here before she used more than half of her remaining chakra to use a full body blast, throwing her kunai at the same time she made sure that her kunai were faster than the normally thrown ones.

Samui shielded herself with her short blade but couldn't help but be blown away by the blast.

Yuugi dashed forward with one of her most lethal attacks, the three palm strike however as she reached her destination she was surprised to see Samui smirking. "Fifth dance; danced." Yuugi hit Samui on left collarbone but despite hearting the cracking sound of the bone snapping in two Samui just smiled victorious. 'What happened?' the Hyuuga thought confused. "Make one wrong move and you won't be able to move ever again." Samui warned her.

Samui seemingly hugged the Hyuuga while her faithful blade was ready to pierce the girl's spinal cord. 'I don't have enough chakra left to use the full body blast or kaiten! I can't escape this!'

Samui's blade slowly went through Yuugi's skin who just stood there helplessly, frozen in place. 'Have I underestimated her? Was I too arrogant? Too prideful? Is this where it ends for me?'

"I suggest you give up… before I end your life." Samui coughed up blood while her short blade was slowly taking the life of her opponent.

"I… I give up." Yuugi's eyes went back to normal, saddened and hurt by her defeat. 'I should have ended her after I had sealed off her tenketsu points… I shouldn't have shown her the slightest hint of mercy. Sorry, sensei… I let you down.' Yuugi looked up, at the bright blue sky and smiled. 'But I have come a long way.'

"The winner of this match is, Samui!" Darui announced, as slowly but surely the tantõ that was embedding Yuugi's back was retreating.

"You fought a good fight, Hyuuga-san." Samui said bowing.

Yuugi looked bewildered for a second before regaining control of herself and bowing as well. "Thank you, so did you."

* * *

><p>"It seems like your bet was placed on the right kunoichi, Raikage-dono." Sarutobi said with a small smile. "To think Miss Hyuuga managed to stay unscathed for four dances shows that she is a capable ninja, perhaps even chuunin material."<p>

"Yes, she was able to come with good strategies; she was just unlucky; she had to fight the strongest genin in Kumo." The Raikage said with pride. "The Hyuuga has impressed me, and I will vote in favor of her advancement."

"Yes, she had perfect control of this fight as long as it wasn't a battle of desperation and would've won if the dance hadn't been danced the way it was, but it has and she didn't have a plan for the situation, I will advise against promoting her." The Tsuchikage said.

"Then as Hokage I will think on the matter, thank you for your insight, Kage-dono." Sarutobi said politely as the two girls left the arena to get medical attention.

"Koh and Hiroku will be facing of next round; a battle between Konoha and Iwa, let's see which village is stronger shall we?" The Raikage said amused. "So far Konoha has lost against Kumo, let's see if Koh can even the score, Hokage-dono."

"I am sure Koh will not bring shame on the village hidden in the leaves." Sarutobi said.

* * *

><p>"Yuugi! Are you all right?" Harry asked as Yuugi walked by.<p>

"It is nothing the medics won't be able to patch up." she said with a small smile. "Koh, don't hold back anything, go at it full force from the start, learn from my mistakes." Yuugi urged Koh.

Koh nodded, his face serious, at least the parts Yuugi could see without her Byakugan.

"Good luck Koh!" Harry said with a big smile.

Koh walked in to the arena lazily, as if the match had already been won by him.

Standing in front of his opponent who tried to intimidate Koh by scrunching his face in ways Koh had not thought possible Koh just stood still, unmoving.

Darui raised his arm "There are no rules other than that the fight must be kept within the walls of this arena. On the count of three you are allowed to start." the entire crowd silenced as Darui said that. As Darui's hand went down and he finished counting Koh simply zipped open his coat as a huge dark red cloud started to form around Koh and his opponent Hiroku.

Screams of someone in the cloud could be heard up in the stands but the dark-red cloud of moving insects didn't allow the crowd to see anything. As the screams stopped the dark-red cloud slowly went back inside Koh's coat.

On the ground an extremely pale boy could be seen, fallen on his knees with his mouth open and small red dots appearing all over his face and arms. The genin had been suffocated to the point of unconsciousness while also being sucked dry of chakra, and seemingly blood.

Darui looked at the cloaked boy. 'this boy… that was a massive amount of killer-intent, these Konoha kids are surely scary for genins.' "Winner is Koh!" he announced.

"He needs medical help. Or the blood loss will kill him." Koh said turning around and walking to the contestant booth seemingly unaffected by the creepy display Hiroku made.

* * *

><p>"Hah! Seems like the score is evened out, by a large margin!" the Raikage laughed.<p>

"It's disgraceful, the boy didn't even need a minute to win!" the Tsuchikage said in disdain. "He is going back to the academy!"

The hokage just looked thoughtful before commenting on the fight. "Team Kakashi seems to learn from each other's mistakes, I believe Koh to be Chuunin material when it comes to power but he hasn't showcased a lot of his other qualities so I will hold off on voting just yet."

* * *

><p>Hidden in the crowds a young man was watching the fights, black hair framed the young man's face. The young man looked bored and if it wasn't for the fact that his eyes followed the contestants, one could mistake this boy to be sleeping with his eyes open.<p>

The young man remained uninterested in the fights, even the gruesome display that was the battle of Aburame Koh didn't make the adolescent look even remotely engaged.

Even Karui's drawn out victory over Piu which ended with both genin losing a lot of blood couldn't make the young man feel anything but utter boredom.

As the fifth fight was announced between Mangetsu and Gozu a small smile appeared on the black haired adolescent, for as soon as the fight started, before either had even made a move Gozu cowardly raised his hand and gave up the battle, which gave way to the last battle of the first round,

Uchiha Haru would fight next and the black haired young man leaned forward. This battle had been the sole reason he had bothered disguising himself and sneak inside, for it was his youngest brother that would fight, that would showcase the strength of the remaining Uchiha.

* * *

><p>"The next fight shall be between Konoha's youngest contestant and one of your very own genins, Raikage-dono. Who do you think will win?" Oonoki the Tsuchikage asked of him, as if the Uchiha had an actual chance against someone trained by his very own brother.<p>

"I have no doubt that the young genin will fight bravely, but just like the last Konoha and Kumo battle, team Kirabi will squash the competition." A said exuding confidence.

Smiling knowingly the Hokage brought in his own point of view. "I have full confidence in Uchiha Haru, I would advise against underestimating his capabilities solely because of his age or apparent strength."

A thought back to his own meeting with the child a few weeks ago; the boy had a quick tongue and had wits about him. Though Omoi, who would face the young Uchiha, was strong and had a sharp mind to aid him in battle was not the strongest genin of team Kirabi. And the hokage was hinting at the idea of Uchiha Haru being the strongest of his own team. If so, Omoi would have a hard time.

* * *

><p>Samui wished her team mate good luck as he passed her by grabbing his wrist stopping him from franticly licking his lollypop. "You're strong Omoi, believe in yourself as much as I do and you will make it through. Good luck." She said encouraging him.<p>

She knew that Omoi was strong, strong enough to make chuunin, but was he stronger than the young Uchiha? Samui hoped so.

She watched as Omoi and Haru walked to the middle of the arena and saw that Omoi had put away his lollypop. 'Good, that means he is taking this seriously.'

* * *

><p>Darui raised his arm and saw that at least one of the genin visibly tensed at the sudden movement; with a small smile he tried to relax the blonde genin. "There are no rules other than that the fight must be kept within the walls of this arena. On the count of three you are allowed to start." Darui explained loud enough for the crowds to hear as they were all silent.<p>

Omoi heard Darui count to three and saw that the boy in front of him, who was barely half his age, was smiling as if he was just told Christmas would come early. Omoi prepared himself to fight the child by slowly gathering chakra.

As Darui's hand went down and the battle had officially started Omoi jumped back distancing himself from the Uchiha whose eyes had turned red instantly. Going through the needed hand seals he created two raiton bunshin and hoped to observe how the boy moved. As the clones dashed towards Haru, Omoi slowly walked back a little more, distancing himself even further.

Haru, to Omoi's confusion, started clapping his hands. "Wow, that is really cool!" the boy said cheerfully. Going through the same hand seals as him the Uchiha also created two clones. "I wonder whose clones are better, let's watch shall we?" Haru said sitting down and looking intently at the clones.

'How was he able to use the raiton clone technique, it is one of the techniques that are solely used and taught to shinobi from Kumo?' Omoi thought readying a kunai while the clones clashed. Omoi's clone punched the Uchiha's clone in the face, causing the clone to explode in lightning destroying his own clone. Before long the other clone had succumbed to the same fate.

"Wow, your clones are really strong Omoi-san!" the Uchiha said with his voice full of admiration. "Let's play clone war again, it was fun!" Haru said rapidly going through the hand seals before creating ten raiton clones without even looking remotely taxed by the chakra cost. That display caused Omoi to gulp with widened eyes. 'Creating those two clones earlier was purely to observe his movements and find his openings, but I can't follow ten of them, aside from that it would be too taxing on my chakra to keep on creating clones like that, that means I will have to directly attack them myself.' Sighing Omoi backed away even more and threw kunai with exploding notes attached to them to the clones. The clones, amazingly, grabbed the kunai and ran away from the real Haru sacrificing themselves to keep the real one safe.

"Aww, why'd you do that? That's no fun!" Uchiha Haru said pouting childishly while looking saddened by the death of his clones. Omoi tried to ignore the Uchiha's behavior and threw another batch of kunai with exploding notes at the young boy. As the kunai neared the other genin Omoi watched in horror as the boy remained sitting on the ground, not even trying to evade the coming explosion. Time seemed to slow down as Omoi raised his hand and released the chakra required for the explosion notes to activate. The notes burned excruciatingly slow and Omoi could clearly see the Uchiha just look at the notes with interest, as if he didn't know what would happen once the burning stopped…

Omoi blinked as the notes exploded and engulfed the young genin in flames. Had he just killed a child?

Waiting for the flames and smoke to clear Omoi swallowed hoping that he had won the fight but that the genin had survived the onslaught. The crowds were also looking at the smoke-filled arena intensely. Some viewers even had their hands placed in front of their eyes, scared at what they might see. One black haired young man however just smirked and patiently waited for the coming events to unfold.

* * *

><p>"Seems like you've won this, Omoi." Samui whispered, but not soft enough to be unheard by Koh, who was standing next to Samui.<p>

"The fight is far from over; my teammate is merely having fun." Koh placed his hand on the railing "It is actually just starting to become interesting."

* * *

><p>Harry felt sorry for Omoi, the boy had looked so guilty when he had activated his explosive notes but Harry knew that if he was to showcase his abilities he also had to show the ugly parts; in this case deception. Currently Harry was twenty feet under Omoi, and had just created a clone of himself that was 'killed' in the explosion. He had already placed Omoi under a genjutsu when the boy had looked at him in guilt and knew that the boy would see an illusion as soon as the boy's mind thought he could see Harry's body.<p>

Harry dug his way up, ready to use one of his favorite jutsu's on Omoi.

* * *

><p>Omoi saw the silhouette of his opponent through the smoke, the boy was still sitting in lotus position but Omoi could hardly make out the small sticks that were supposed to be the boy's arms. As the smoke cleared Omoi's eyes widened as the smell of burned flesh made its way to Omoi's nose.<p>

Omoi walked forward, closer to where the Uchiha boy was sitting and as the smoke cleared even more Omoi was treated to the most horrible sight he had ever seen. Sitting in lotus position was the burned corpse of the playful genin. A look of immense pain and horror could be seen etched on the face of the now dead genin. The boy's eyes were still red but now not because of the sharingan that was proudly spinning but because blood was seeping out of it, the boy's playful smile had turned into a silent scream and the boy's skin was black with patches of oozing pus.

Omoi couldn't control his reaction as he fell down to his knees and started to heave, he had killed a child! A child that had thought this exam was some sort of game, he had killed an innocent boy because he wanted to win a battle, a stupid tournament! As the contents of his stomach were spread out over the ground it felt as if the earth beneath him was shaking, his whole world was trembling.

* * *

><p>Oonoki looked at the battle in interest, the Kumo boy had been looking at the empty space that had once been occupied by the Konoha child as if he saw the most horrifying thing imaginable.<p>

"It seems like your confidence in your genin was misplaced, the boy has not even noticed that he has been caught in a genjutsu." The Tsuchikage laughed. "How truly pathetic, is that really what you wanted to show the world Raikage? A genin that cannot even hold his own against a six year old child? Ha!"

The Raikage's face contorted in anger.

"Tsuchikage-dono, don't say such things, Uchiha Haru is a more than capable genin you do him great injustice to think of him as just a six year old." Sarutobi said turning the conversation around.

"Despite all this boasting, Hokage-dono, I have yet to see how this child is any better than a normal genin. Perhaps it is you who is doing the young Uchiha injustice by allowing the child to participate in a deathly tournament for glory and fame." Oonoki folded his hands and let out a small laugh. "But perhaps not." He mused when Omoi suddenly got dragged underground.

* * *

><p>Harry grabbed Omoi's ankle and pulled the boy down while he was still emptying his stomach. Harry climbed out of the ground and dispelled the genjutsu he had placed on Omoi while simultaneously taking out a kunai and pointing it at Omoi's throat.<p>

"That was great fun, Omoi-san." Harry looked at Darui. "So… does this mean I have won, or can we go for another round?" Harry asked somewhat disappointed.

Darui looked at Omoi, who was unable to move "The winner is Haru." He announced causing Harry to smile and run towards Darui.

"Thank you!" Harry said while hugging the jounin's leg. The jounin's reaction caused some people in the crowd to stifle a laugh as Darui looked immensely uncomfortable.

"Uhmm, yeah… no problem." Darui said while trying to push Harry away.

* * *

><p>Harry hopped to the contestant's booth, with a huge grin on his face and was welcomed by Koh. "That was a really good match, Harry."<p>

"Thank you." Harry tried his hardest to keep up the childish persona he had wrapped himself in for this exam. Harry noticed that someone was walking up to him from behind him and so he turned around only to be met by a pointy teethed grin.

"Heh, shrimp." The blue haired boy went through his knees to come to eye-level with Harry while leaning on his huge sword. "It's a shame if you were to die at such a young age, boy, dying nameless, boy, dying with your blood smeared on my blade." Mangetsu caressed his bandaged sword as if it was a fragile thing. "Give up now boy, and you'll live to see another day." Mangetsu grinned his white-blue hair dangling in front of his eyes.

Harry just stared at the older boy. "You sure have pointy teeth, do you have to sharpen them daily?" he said mesmerized by the sharp looking canines.

Mangetsu laughed sinisterly "Hah! Finally someone that appreciates the work I put into my appearance!" Standing up straight he aimed his sword at Harry with a wicked smile on his face. "I will cut you in two with the greatest honor, boy."

Harry jumped on the huge sword and went through his knees to look Mangetsu right in the eye, he started a staring contest, not blinking for thirty second before he lowered his eye-lid with his finger and stuck out his tongue. Causing Mangetsu to growl. Harry hastily jumped off the sword with a squell "Waaah!" and tried to hide himself in Koh's coat.

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><p><strong>AN <strong>

****I hope this chapter met your expectations; if so tell me in a review; if not tell me in a review! Indifferent? tell me in a review!... just review...****

**SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER**

**Next chapter will show the second round of the finals!**

*Sweet Pea; Naruto hasn't been in the picture lately because he is just not that interesting at the moment. You will see him apear more often sooner rather than later, I promise you that, there will be quite the storyline for young Naruto and youing Sasuke.

*Skelo & *OoNakuoO; Hopefully this chapter has provided your dose of HArry fighting for now; Chapter 23 will have a huge fight between Harry and Mangetsu, a fight that I have been wanting to write for a long long time.

*Mist shadow; I am not going to reveal just yet how Harry and his team managed to get their hands on the medalion as quick as they did but it will be brought up before the chuunin exam ends.

Harry's meeting with Samui was written for two reasons; 1. Harry knew of course that Samui was there and hoped to plant a seed of "What a cute child." and he hoped that by doing so she would under estimate him. 2. I really wanted to show their interaction; I really like writing Samui and her thought proces, and this idea popped into my head, it was too good not to write.

*Flower kid is a leprechaun; I am actively searching for a Beta, but I haven't had much luck finding one.

*reader-anymous: Yes, I made Kirabi speak in rhymes, I am not really good with his enka/rapping... I wasn't lying about the medallions, there really were just four of them, unlike Konoha, Kumo didn't want prelimenaries... About Harry's slipping; He didn't mean to slip like that; hell he didn't even realize that Samui would be overthinking such a small detail...

*slytherin's Pimp: I've tried to tease you guys a bit with that in chapter 22; more will follow in chapter 23.

*Cupitor & *Junky; Thank you that's really nice.


	24. The green eyed god part 2

**AN: **It has taken more than a month to write this chapter, I am sorry for that. I've edited this chapter so many times after the framing of it was done because I wanted to get it all right. The chapter is divided in three parts/three fights. I have decided not to leave you guys with a bigger cliffhanger than what we currently have (that means I finished all the fights of this round!) so please enjoy this chapter and at the end, tell me what you thought of it. Last chapter got a whopping 34 reviews some of them funny, some of them inquisitive and some of them just told me that they liked what they read, yet all of them I appreciate! Now enough of my blabbering; on to the chapter.

**A big thank you to Beta's Lexandria and C.j.C of DLP**

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><p><strong>Chapter 23: The green-eyed God part 2<strong>

When the Raikage had announced the start of the last phase in the chuunin exam, Samui had been sure that she would be able to make it to the last round without having to reveal her trump card. Perhaps that had been a bit presumptuous of her. The fight with Hyuuga Yuugi had taken more out of her than she had anticipated; she had been forced to use the fifth dance.

_Samui's skin itched as, after three hours, feeling slowly began to return to her body along with her ability to mold chakra. She had not foreseen the ferocity with which she would be attacked by the Hyuuga; Samui was glad that the medical staff on site had been able to tend to her wounds immediately after the fight had concluded. Without full use of her chakra and legs there would be no way for her to be able to continue in the tournament._

Evading another stream of hot, burning lava, Samui wondered how she would ever get closer to the Iwa-genin. Kurotsuchi had been in control of this fight from the get go, using doton-bunshin to keep Samui busy. The girl had been trying to trap her between the wall and her bunshin while using her lava to kill her.

So far the Iwa-genin had not been very successful in her attempts to burn Samui to a crisp. Samui had been using her short-blade to take care of the doton-bunshin without many problems and evading the lava, while difficult, was far from impossible.

_The arena, which at one time appeared to have been built yesterday on a perfectly level field void of obstacles, now appeared to have been through a meteor shower. All the lava the girl had used quickly cooled to leave behind large boulders and craters. _Samui was glad for that because it made evading the incoming lava that much easier.

She had to come up with a plan; Kurotsuchi didn't look like she would tire out anytime soon and actually seemed to enjoySamui's antics as she spewed lava.

Samui knew that just running away wasn't going to win her the match, which was why she was now holding four smoke bombs in her hand. Waiting until Kurotsuchi paused to breathe Samui dashed towards the Iwa-genin and threw two of the smoke bombs on the ground, making sure that Kurotsuchi couldn't aim at her directly. Using the confusion she had just caused, Samui created three raiton-bunshin and had them hide behind the large boulders while she engaged Kurotsuchi in hand to hand combat.

* * *

><p>Harry and Koh were standing in the contestant booth being treated to the sight of two skilled genin fighting.<p>

"It is obvious who is going to win this: while Kurotsuchi is clearly stronger physically and with ninjutsu, she just doesn't have the mind set to think about what she does. She just overpowers her opponents without a layered strategy. Apart from that she is more well-rounded." Harry had already activated his sharingan earlier to observe this fight with more precision.

Koh looked down at his younger teammate "Have you been able to obtain any useful jutsu from them?"

Harry smirked at that. "Kurotsuchi has been using her bloodline-limit since the start of this fight, I am unable to copy any jutsu of that nature, and Samui hasn't used anything new either... It is quite a letdown to be honest..." raising his voice Harry decided to draw some attention to himself "Oh look! The blonde sword lady is going to win!"

Koh sighed in response to Harry's childish acting and decided that if Harry ever acted like that on their missions he would personally make sure Harry would not live to see another day. This was simply unbearable.

"What makes you think that Samui is going to come out of this battle as the victor? So far she hasn't been able to go on the offense since the start of this fight." Koh feigned ignorance.

"Isn't it obvious?" Harry asked as if he had been asked if one plus one was two. "Blonde sword lady has bigger boobs. Bigger boobs always win!"

Around Harry and Koh the remaining genin were snickering.

"I am not sure that theory is…" Koh sighed once more and decided that he was definitely going to kill Harry if ever the boy thought it was a good idea to act like an annoying child again.

"It's not a theory, silly. It is fact." Harry's eyes were laughing but his expression didn't betray him as it was rather stoic. "Just look, it's obvious!"

* * *

><p>Fighting hand to hand had never been Kurotsuchi's strong point; sure she was skilled in taijutsu but she felt much more at ease when using ninjutsu. 'I can't use my lava release this close to her, the time it would take me to prepare the jutsu would be too long." Dodging another kick from Samui, Kurotsuchi was desperately thinking of way out of this situation. 'I need to get rid of the smoke first, she seems to be better adjusted to it than I am.'<p>

Jumping back, she gathered her chakra and, with a huge effort, raised the ground to make a dome of stone to protect her while the smoke slowly cleared.

Kurotsuchi waited for minutes, but there were no attempts made to destroy her dome. She wondered why that was but decided that the blond genin was probably unable to mount an appropriate attack.

It was evident that she was stronger, Kurotsuchi knew that she had been stronger from the get go; she knew that she could beat this sorry excuse for a kunoichi, but how to go about it? Using her lava nonstop had been useless, the little bitch was too quick on to catch like that and her clones were no match for that annoying blade.

So what was left? What had she learned during her training that could help her out now? Thinking about her time spent in Iwa, Kurotsuchi remembered something that her father had done, something she had not been able to do herself yet, but it would most certainly be extremely helpful in this situation.

* * *

><p>"It looks like your granddaughter is too scared to face Samui." A said.<p>

Oonoki was thinking the same thing 'what is taking her so long?' "My granddaughter is more than capable of defeating a mere genin. My son has trained her personally, I am sure this is all part of her strategy."

"The girl is indeed up to something, I can feel that she has been gathering her chakra for some time now. It is quite frightening to think that one as young as her has access to that much chakra." The Hokage added.

'It is no surprise: she has been using soldier pills. But if she is gathering that much chakra, then she must be contemplating that jutsu… is she ready for it? Can she handle the strain on her chakra pathways?' Oonoki, despite his back pain, leaned forward. "You will see, this fight will be over once the dome goes down."

"It will not matter, Samui will win this fight. She is by far the smarter fighter."

* * *

><p>Building up this much chakra felt like trying to contain a tsunami with her bare hands. It physically felt like her entire body was burning, but for victory, for honor, she was willing to go further than she had ever gone before.<p>

Going through the hand seals with slow and controlled movements, Kurotsuchi tried to focus, this jutsu would take everything she had but it would also make sure that she would win. Samui was never going to be able to dodge this.

With her last hand seal the dome around her crumbled and Kurotsuchi saw Samui in the middle of the arena, just standing. "Youton; Yochi atemono buranketto!" she yelled at the top of her lungs as the chakra inside her erupted and poured out of her as lava. Huge waves of lava rushed out of the Iwa-genin's pores as if she were sweating magma. Mere moments later, the ground of the entire arena was covered in boiling lava and Samui's clones had all been destroyed when they had been engulfed by the molten lava.

Kurotsuchi could feel the chakra that was leaking out of her was becoming harder and harder to control, yet she still hadn't heard the screams of agony she had been waiting for. Where was that blonde-bitch?

* * *

><p>Samui had been able to 'merge' with the walls of the stadium as she had been taught way back in the academy, effectively hiding from Kurotsuchi's sight. The lava, which was so hot that even the air was rippling, had taken hold of the entire field making it impossible for Samui to get near Kurotsuchi. 'All this lava she is creating, it does not make sense, she should be experiencing chakra exhaustion by now, or at the very least destroying her chakra pathways by overloading them.'<p>

'I can't get near her, so, I need her to get closer to me…' After the fight she had fought with the Hyuuga, her kunai with exploding notes were reduced to just three, thus she had to think this through and come up with a solid plan.

'Kurotsuchi is standing still on the rising lava, does this mean that she cannot move? Perhaps the strain of her chakra or concentration doesn't allow her do anything but convert chakra into lava… it is worth testing out.' Ending her wall-merging technique Samui became visible again to the eyes of the audience and Kurotsuchi.

Knowing that she wouldn't have much time before Kurotsuchi would focus on her Samui threw one of the kunai with an explosion note attached to it, however as soon as she did a wall of lava erupted and stopped the kunai.

"'Youton; Yochi atemono buranketto' is not just a wide area of effect jutsu to attack with, it is also the perfect defensive technique. In other words, as long as I have chakra inside my body, I cannot be touched." Kurotsuchi said panting heavily with sweat dripping down her face.

The wall of lava that had stopped her kunai suddenly collapsed into a wave that rushed towards Samui.

* * *

><p>Oonoki had been Tsuchikage for over forty years and in all his years he had not known a more driven and talented kunoichi than his very own granddaughter; she had become his pride, his legacy to the world. Kurotsuchi was strong, stronger than most chuunin, but she was also arrogant and, watching the battle in the arena, Oonoki knew that that arrogance would cost his granddaughter this battle. She had overestimated herself and underestimated her opponent. It was as clear as the bright blue sky that the Samui girl was faster than the chakra-manipulated lava that Kurotsuchi was throwing around.<p>

Looking at his granddaughter he could see the strain this jutsu was taking on her body, her skin was slowly, but surely, showing signs of chakra burns, which meant that she was using too much chakra, that she had lost control to the point she could no longer protect her tenketsu points.

As Kurotsuchi once more poured chakra into her technique, Oonoki knew that this battle would be over soon. Kurotsuchi had taken a risk that didn't pay out, though the fact that she was able to use such a technique spoke volumes of her talent. Yes, she would definitely be able to make chuunin the next time she participated in these exams, but for now she had done well enough.

"It seems, Raikage, that you were right. Samui has won this fight." Oonoki said as Kurotsuchi's eyes widened a moment before she collapsed.

* * *

><p>Harry had been watching the fight between the two kunoichi intently, assessing their skills and abilities. He had not been surprised at all that Samui had won this fight, the way she had won, however, had been a surprise.<em>Kurotsuchi had collapsed due to chakra exhaustion, thus effectively forfeiting the match.<em> The Iwa-genin would be lucky if she came out of this fight without any lasting damage to her chakra-pathways.

"That lava-style jutsu was quite the spectacle." Koh said as he slowly made his way to the arena. "She changed the entire battlefield with one jutsu, to think someone of our, I mean my, age was able to master such a jutsu."

Harry followed his teammate "Actually, she hadn't mastered the technique. That was why she lost; she took a gamble but placed her bet on the wrong jutsu. Koh, make sure you don't succumb to the same fate. Finish this fight quickly; I want to see you in the finals with all your limbs attached."

Koh stopped his movements and turned around to look at his teammate. "I will fight to the best of my ability; make sure you do the same once it is your turn. Don't joke around."

As Koh made his way to the middle of the arena, a red-haired genin walked past her teammate. "Good luck Karui." the blonde-genin straightened her clothing.

"Che! I don't need luck; I can beat bug-boy easily." Karui laughed her nerves off, "I'm not like you, Samui, I will finish this fight before the boy even gets the chance to unleash his bugs." The redhead walked confidently over the already hardened lava, there were still some portions that were too hot to stand on, but she evaded those spots without a thought.

Standing on the right of Darui, Karui looked straight at her opponent. 'Che! I will beat this kid into a pulp before he even knows the fight has started!' Karui mentally pumped herself up. 'I can do this! I will do this!'

Darui raised his arm "There are no rules other than that the fight must be kept within the walls of this arena. On the count of three you are allowed to start." Darui explained loud enough for the crowd to hear.

Karui heard Darui count to three and, as his hand went down, Karui grabbed her sword and ran forward.

_'Nine_ more steps to go' Karui looked at the boy in front of her, 'Such a fragile thing, the human body… All I need to do is stab him, slash him, rip him apart and I win!'

_'Eight_ more steps to go.' The Konoha-genin ever the fool, stood still, impassive.

_'Seven_ more steps.' Karui quickened her pace as a smile started to form on her face. 'Che! I am going to win this; he is so slow it is like he isn't moving!'

_'Six_ more steps to go.' The ground under Karui's feet was still warm but it didn't matter, nothing would stop her from winning this battle.

_'Five_ more steps to go.' Karui clenched her fingers around the hilt of her sword. 'I will finish this in one swift slash, just behead the boy, not like he will need it after this fight, ha!'

_'Four_ more… just four more and I will win, I will make it to the finals, I will make everyone see me instead of Samui, and everyone will see how I defeated my opponent with just one swift movement!'

_'Three_ more steps to go, perhaps I shouldn't outright kill him, just maim or seriously injure would do the trick.' Karui hastened her pace even more.

_'Two_ more… just two more and I will draw his blood!'

She blinked as the wind was irritated her eyes. 'Just _one_ more step and I am that much closer to my goal, to my fate!'

Karui let out a scream as her sword ripped through the body of the Konoha-genin. The boy didn't make a sound, but his body slumped over as Karui saw red, red everywhere, blood?

Karui raised her sword into the air, her glorious victory pose in stark contrast to the pitiful heap that was the body of the Konoha-genin. Red drops were still flying in the air as some of the drops splashed on her face. 'Che, I did it! I am a shinobi of Kumo, I don't fear the blood of my enemies!' Karui looked around her.

Blood was everywhere, almost like red dots; the blood splatters were seemingly hanging frozen in suspended movement. "Yeah!" Karui screamed out as the victor of this battle. But where were the cheering sounds of the audience? Why was it like everyone was holding their breath? Why was it so still?

"I won!" Karui jumped "Che!" searching for Samui's face, she moved around to look at the contestant's booth. It took her no longer than a fraction of a second to see the horror etched on Samui's face. She seemed to scream something but for some reason she couldn't hear it, it was like the world no longer had any sounds.

* * *

><p>Samui looked at her teammate; she was surrounded by little red dots, the same red dots that had nearly killed Koh's first opponent. "Karui, get away from there! Fast!" Slowly, as Samui could clearly see, the red bugs swarmed around Karui. They latched on to her, crawled inside her, as the body that had been lying on the ground exploded in red bugs, a bunshin.<p>

It was a truly disturbing sight to behold, Koh was nowhere to be seen but the increasing size of the red cloud of bugs told Samui that her friend had just been beaten; there was nothing that Karui had in her arsenal that could be of use now.

A high pitched scream was heard throughout the arena, Samui could not bear it any longer, she averted her eyes but the screaming didn't stop. Karui sounded like she was not enjoying the experience. But before long, the screaming quieted and again the crowds were stunned, such a gruesome display sickened even some of the experienced ninja.

As Darui declared Koh the winner, the bugs started to make high pitched buzzing sounds and came together to create Koh who just looked at her teammate with indifference. Before walking to the contestant's booth he raised an eyebrow as Samui ran forward to her teammate.

"She fought bravely." The Aburame said to her before continuing his walk to the booth.

* * *

><p>Mangetsu felt bored, this entire chuunin exam had been a total bore. The first test had been a silly written exam and the second test hardly had any fighting in it either. Wasn't he promised the chance to show the world the power of the youngest member of the seven swordsmen? Was he not promised, by the Mizukage himself, that the Uchiha that would participate as well would be the perfect opponent to show off against?<p>

He hadn't left his baby brother behind without a reason, he was promised a good fight, and so a good fight he would get!

Mangetsu, the youngest member of the seven swordsmen and the first Hozuki-clan member to truly perfect the hydrification technique, lazily stood up and walked towards the battle arena.

_Today would be the day that he, Mangetsu Hozuki, would show not only Kirigakure, but the entire world, just why he had become so feared__._ Today would be the first day of a new era, an era in which he would be the most referred Kiri-nin.

All ninja would tremble upon hearing his name, knowing just how bloodthirsty he was. Today he would become known as the slayer of one of the last Uchiha. There was nothing that would be able to stand in his way, no one strong enough to take him down if he released his full power.

Yes, today all who had doubts about his strength would know him as the second coming of the demon of the mist.

* * *

><p>Harry ignored the killing intent that Mangetsu was throwing around as he walked towards Darui. This match would be of a completely different nature than the last one. Unlike Omoi, who was mostly harmless, Mangetsu radiated danger. This boy was a killer, he had killed before and wouldn´t hesitate to kill again.<p>

Harry was sure he could handle it though, he hadn´t trained for nearly his entire shinobi life to simply be defeated by a killing-happy sword-boy, so Harry flashed his opponent a smile. "Good luck mister pointy-teeth."

Mangetsu just growled at Harry in response.

Darui raised his arm in the air and the entire crowd silenced. "There are no rules other than that the fight must be kept within the walls of this arena. On the count of three you are allowed to start."

As soon as Darui's hand went down, a manic, teeth bearing grin appeared on Mangetsu that sent shivers down Harry's spine. "Let's cut you in half!" Grabbing his gigantic sword, Mangetsu dashed forward and slashed at Harry, who had already activated his Sharingan.

Harry dodged the sword easily, but that didn't seem to upset Mangetsu. "Woah, mister pointy-teeth, you are slower than me! So funny." Harry said, taunting the Kiri-nin while making sure that he stayed in control of this fight. If he had learned one thing in this life, and the previous one, it was that those that keep their tempers in check tend to survive.

Mangetsu simply widened his grin and prepared his sword again. Once more, the older boy dashed towards Harry. He lifted his sword and jumped high into the air. With one mighty swing the sword was brought down, but after jumping so high into the air the distance made the slash seem pointless. Harry wondered why the Kiri-genin would do such a futile thing 'no one does something like that without a reason, what is his?'. A fraction of a second later Harry and the audience got their questions answered as the sword became engulfed with chakra that enlarged the sword exponentially, making it long enough to reach Harry.

However, Harry could dodge the chakra blade without much effort since it had lost its momentum. "Argh, lazy blade." Mangetsu said as the chakra retreated back into the blade. Landing on the ground opposite of Harry, Mangetsu narrowed his eyes and unleashing an ungodly (for a genin) amount of killer intent. "I will cut you the next time I swing my blade."

If Mangetsu had been fighting him at the time when Harry had first been a child, a threat like that would probably have scared him. Back then, Harry didn't have any experience in dealing with intimidating people other than his Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. But now, Harry had been taught to withstand killing intent and release his own. Killing intent was easily created but difficult to control. Those who could control it were able to focus all of their intent on one person and concentrate it to the point where it could paralyze that person. However, should one meet someone that was also able to control their killing intent it lessened the effects. Kakashi-sensei had made sure that team twelve knew exactly what it was and how to use it.

It was for that reason that Harry simply laughed at Mangetsu's failed attempt at intimidation. "Mister pointy teeth," Harry threw his head backwards before asking manically "Why so serious?" Harry started to laugh creepily, as only a young child could, before he vanished without a trace.

Mangetsu quirked his eyebrow as he couldn't sense the playful child anywhere near him. "You can't hide from me for long!" Mangetsu said in anger once he failed to find the boy through the usual ways. So he did the thing that came naturaly to him, he gathered his chakra in his blade and started to spin, first slowly, than faster and faster. Before long he had become a blur. _His chakra-drenched sword was also spinning around before it suddenly expanded to become a huge blue disk that cut the air from one side of the stadium to the other; becoming so large it even scraped the dense walls on either side._

After a few seconds Mangetsu stopped his spinning, only to find that Harry still was nowhere to be found.

* * *

><p>Looking down, Harry could see the arena while he was free-falling through the clouds. Mangetsu was truly a worthy opponent to showcase his skill-set with. Kakashi had made it clear that Konoha, after the loss of dozens of well-known Uchiha, again needed to prove that they were a force to be reckoned with. The chuunin exams were the perfect setting for such a thing.<p>

There was still half a mile to go before he reached the ground, so Harry decided to enjoy the silence. This high in the sky he could feel the chakra barriers that protected Kumogakure. They were weaker than Konoha´s but they were far more numerous, more than forty layers if he wasn´t mistaken.

Harry started gathering his chakra and making sure that his mental and physical energy was perfectly mixed; it wouldn´t do to spill any chakra in a fight that would be drawn out. This battle would take as long as Harry needed to feature some of his most frightening abilities, starting with a jutsu he had lovingly named ´Hishou no shikkyaku komettos´. Flight of the falling comets.

Harry created two dozen exploding bunshin that would use body-popping to quickly travel to the ground and explode as soon as they touched anything. It was a shame that the clones wasted a lot of chakra body-popping, which caused the explosions to be quite small, but the effect was quite lethal. However, Harry was sure it was nothing that the Hozuki boy couldn't handle.

* * *

><p>Darui had just landed back on the ground after having to jump to evade the Kiri-genin's spinning disc of chakra. 'These kids… it is almost like the old days when we all fought as if our life depended on it. This is not as dull as I expected it to be.'<p>

Darui had noticed, as he was one of the responsible few that had access to the barriers around Kumo, that the Konoha child had vanished without a trace. Not because the boy was fast or extremely good at cloaking himself in chakra, but because the boy had teleported himself. Teleportation was one of the few jutsu that were of such rarity that only a handful in the history of the shinobi world had been capable of performing them. To think that the boy who was currently high up in the air had performed a teleportation of the highest grade so effortlessly was impressive to say the least.

Most ninja that were able to become chuunin eventually got the hang of a shunshin of some sort. Shunshin was the lowest level of quasi-teleportation, as it allowed a ninja, through a massive surge of chakra, to become very fast for a very short time, but it wasn't instantaneous. Thus it was not as coveted as true teleportation._ To be able to perform a true teleportation technique, and over such a distance, would be very advantageous during battle or missions. The worth of a jutsu of that caliber increased exponentially when one took into consideration the ends most would go to in order to gain the allegiance of a ninja with a true teleportation ability._

It was bad news for Kumo that Konoha had yet another teleportation specialist joining their ranks, if this boy would become even half as lethal as the fourth Hokage it could mean that Kumo would no longer be the strongest, military wise. Perhaps this fight, by accident of course, would prove fatal for the boy?

* * *

><p>Mangetsu was annoyed, no that was too small a word, he was enraged. The boy that he was fighting had disappeared right under his nose and was now mocking him by somehow bombing him with exploding bunshin. Not that it could really do anything against Mangetsu's speed, which helped him evade the speeding clones.<p>

After twenty of the annoying explosions had occurred, Mangetsu decided that he had been defensive for long enough. It was for that reason he stopped moving around and, with his sword ready in his hand, jumped as high as he could. While he was in the air he was met by four falling clones that didn't seem to notice him. There was no sign of the smaller boy's real body, no sign of the child that had mocked him, the second coming of the demon of the mist, he who had mastered all seven swords of the mist, he who had fully mastered the hydrification jutsu!

It angered him so much that he no longer wanted to hold back his killing intent. He let it loose, and as he did he could hear the people in the crowd starting to scream as if he was attacking them. The screams made Mangetsu feel respected once more: their fear was feeding him.

"Mister pointy teeth why are you looking for me all the way up there?" he heard a young voice say from under him. "I'm right here… it is unfair to jump so high when I am not tall enough to even come close!" The boy started to pout.

Mangetsu couldn't take this mockery of a battle anymore, he was going to kill this boy, rip him into pieces, and dismember him so slowly that he would beg for death. Yes, revenge would be his. So far, fighting with his sword had not helped him: twice had he tried to slash the boy down. Perhaps he should try something else, perhaps the best way to get rid of a child was to play a little game of hide and seek.

Smirking, Mangetsu reigned in his killing intent. He withdrew his chakra before pouring it back into the air around him, causing it to form a thick layer of mist in the arena.

"Your eyes are useless in this thick mist, boy." Mangetsu poured even more chakra into the air around him, making the mist even denser. "The human body has eight vital points. The larynx, lungs, spine, liver, carotid artery, collarbone, kidneys, and heart." Mangetsu thickened the mist even more, his water-natured-chakra providing him protection. "Which vital organ do you want to get struck at first, boy?"

* * *

><p>Next to the contestant booth was the booth reserved for all the jounin instructors. There were only three jounin there, seeing as how only three teams were still left in the competition.<p>

The first was a darkly tanned man with blonde hair that, despite seeing two of his three genin lose, was still in a good mood. He was enjoying observing the matches that were taken place.

The second was a woman with long red hair wearing a blue dress. She was currently looking at the third jounin instructor with a sad expression. "Kakashi-san, I am sorry. I don't think your student has any chance of coming out of this fight alive. When Mangetsu decided to use the silent killing technique your student's fate was sealed."

The third jounin, Kakashi, didn't look bothered at all. He knew of the silent killing technique; it was one of the most fearsome kenjutsu-styles ever to be practiced in Kirigakure. He also knew what his student, Uchiha Haru, was capable of. "It doesn't matter." Kakashi looked at the red-haired-jounin with his famous eye-smile.

"How can you say such a thing? The silent killing technique is not just any sword technique, it wasn't meant to capture or maim the targets!" the red haired kunoichi's eyes were filled with disbelief "It was designed for one purpose and one purpose only: the death of whoever has the bad luck of facing someone familiar with the technique. How heartless are you that you do not even care that your student will certainly die in that arena? If you don't stop this fight the death of your student will be on your conscience."

"Uchiha Haru is what we refer to, in Konoha, as a genius." Kakashi sighed. "I dare say that this boy -Mangetsu was his name, right?- will be able to enjoy this fight; he seems like the kind of person who thrives on fighting to the brink of death. And, if I am right, Haru will give him just that. " The kunoichi, Terumi Mei, looked at Kakashi as if he had grown a second head. However, Kakashi continued, "_You are underestimating a once in a lifetime genius that was born with a fully active sharingan and was capable of fighting on par with chuunin while only four years old. He is the embodiment of the Will of Fire; I feel like a toddler compared to him. Uchiha Haru will change the fate of the world__._**"** Kakashi once more looked at the kunoichi with his eye-smile. "Just watch and enjoy this spectacle, you will be amazed by just how tough that boy can be."

Terumi Mei just shook her head "It doesn't matter. In Kiri we have a title for those who hold no love for life, for those who spill blood for fun: a demon born in mist. In my life I have dealt with people such as Hoshikage Kisame, Jinpachi Munashi and Momochi Zabuza. None of those people are as talented or as ruthless as Mangetsu, none of them scare me as much as my own student." Terumi looked back towards the arena that was filled with mist and prayed for the life of little boy that was fighting the second coming of the demon of the mist.

* * *

><p>The 'Hidden in the mist' technique was a jutsu that used chakra to multiply the water molecules that were present in the air. It did not drain much chakra because it did not create water out of nothing; the fact that the air had already been humid had been very advantageous for Mangetsu. For that reason, Mangetsu had chosen to take advantage of the humidity for his jutsu.<p>

As Harry went through the necessary hand seals, he noticed the air around him shifting; it seemed that Mangetsu was going to try to kill him sooner than Harry had anticipated. Not that it mattered in the end; he would come out as the victor, one way or the other. Harry slammed his hands hard together as if he were clapping "Suiton; Suijin Heki!" the misty air that was filled with water suddenly seemed to collapse on itself and formed a swirling mass of water around Harry.

A huge torrent of water was now very visible in the arena, as it had gathered all the chakra-created water that Mangetsu had made with his mist concealing jutsu. And in the middle of it Harry was standing, protected by the swirling mass of water.

Mangetsu didn't let that stop him though, his sword was clashing with the water wall and seemed to be winning as it got closer and closer to Harry, who was standing still, unmoving in the vortex.

Channeling his chakra into the blade caused it to glow with blue chakra, becoming bigger and bigger, rapidly reaching towards Harry who just clapped in his hands again. "Suishoha"

* * *

><p>After Omoi's downfall A, the Yondaime Raikage, had become interested in the abilities of the Uchiha boy. So far the boy had been able to use a B-class genjutsu on Omoi and had used raiton-clones as if they were nothing.<p>

A had recognized the sword that Mangetsu had strapped on his back; it was one of the legendary seven swords of the mist. This meant that Mangetsu was one of the seven swordsmen. The swordsmen were supposed to all be at least jounin level. To think that Kirigakure was this desperate for a strong image as to send a jounin to fight a handful of chuunin hopefuls. It was as despicable as it was smart. What better way to ensure that Kiri got more requests than to make it seem like even their genin were immensely powerful. It wasn't unlike what his father would have done if ever Kumo needed more requests for ninja.

It was very surprising to see that the Uchiha had not only been able to keep up, but even be in control of this fight. Not once had the boy been scratched, nor had the boy been in any danger of being harmed. The once in a lifetime prodigy had even done something A had thought to be impossible for a genin, let alone a six year old: he had teleported himself into the air without even a hint of his departure. If it wasn't for the huge barriers around Kumo, A wouldn't have believed it, but the evidence was irrefutable.

"Hokage-dono, what an interesting skill-set this boy has." A said, his eyes still focused on the two genin in the arena.

"Uchiha Haru is one of many fine young shinobi that Konoha houses. The will of fire burns brightly in each and every one of them, but it is true that Uchiha Haru burns brighter than most." The Hokage had a proud smile on his face. "I did tell you that this boy was interesting, did I not?"

A released a bellowing laugh at hearing that before the entire arena suddenly filled with mist. "Yes, but you didn't say that he could use a teleportation technique. What are you trying to do, Hokage-dono? Create a second yellow flash?" At hearing that Oonoki started to look very intently at the Hokage. The yellow flash had killed hundreds of the Tsuchikage's shinobi; if the Hokage was truly planning on creating another monster like that then it had to be dealt with as soon as possible.

The Hokage stifled a laugh at the implications of that statement. "No such thing, Raikage-dono. I have long given up on trying to mold people to what I think they should become. I have made a fool of myself once before, I won't make a fool out of me twice." The Hokage stated darkly " though the greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes. So who knows. Would it matter to you if I did?"

A knew that if he said the wrong thing here it would have consequences. "Of course not, Hokage-dono. Consider my last remark simply the musings of a man who has too much time on his hands."

Sarutobi was watching the battle that was unfolding in the arena, when he said something that made both the Raikage as the Tsuchikage wary. "As I grow older I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do." It was a threat to both of them. Touch the boy and you will die, your country will perish and your gravestone would only say 'Here lies a fool, one who crossed the professor, the god of shinobi.'

* * *

><p>"Suishoha" The word thundered in Mangetsu's ears. Before he even had time to react the world around him had exploded in water. Cold water that seemed to burn his flesh, water that was sharp and managed to wound him. Mangetsu, however, wasn't a master of the hydrification technique for fun; it was for moments like this when his opponent would have splattered his body on the arena walls. If he hadn't turned himself and everything attached to him into water, that is. Using the water that the little boy had so furiously thrown around, Mangetsu increased his mass, making himself stronger than he had been in a long time.<p>

Now standing opposite of Uchiha Haru was a huge blob of water, a blob of water that had a conscious. Mangetsu grinned, though it wasn't easy to see in his current state, he had after all just absorbed a few thousand gallons of water and had effectively added it to his own chakra. It was refreshing to say the least.

The boy in front of him stared at him with widened eyes, as if he had just seen the impossible. Mangetsu returned to his normal corporeal body. Grinning madly, he knew that he had broken the spirit of the child, even just a little bit. All would fall before him, even the child that was too strong for his own good.

"You are so tiny, standing before me. A child and nothing more. You have no chance of defeating me, I will cut you in to pieces so many times over that your own momma won't even be able to recognize ya, boy. Gotta admit though, ya got skill, but all it means is that I can show more of my strength." Mangetsu knew that if he talked like this he was intimidating, even his own jounin sensei feared him. Yet, for some reason, the boy in front of him didn't even twitch an eye; so Mangetsu decided to amp his threatening up. "First, I will pluck out those little red eyes of yours, then I will cut out your heart and let you bleed empty, before I finally let my blade cut you up. I will cut you, and cut you! Until the smallest part of your body left is no bigger than a sand grain." Mangetsu couldn't hold his laughter anymore and decided to let it all out while simultaneously running towards the boy and trying to slash him open with his chakra enhanced blade.

The Uchiha boy just narrowed his eyes as he evaded every slashing motion. Mangetsu, never a person to be mocked, increased his speed by making his body thinner. One of the major strengths of his hydrification technique was his ability to alter his body mass, he could make his muscles bigger and stronger or smaller and quicker.

Harry, however, started to smile as well. Making Mangetsu even angrier, he slashed and slashed but it didn't seem to bother the small child at all. Mangetsu started to tire of this useless fight and decided to enhance his sword by covering the blade in chakra and molding it to become as large as a small tree. The Uchiha looked surprised at this tactic, and as Mangetsu again went for the boy's throat he connected. His blade went through the boy's flesh as if through butter. Mangetsu relished at the fact that blood was spouting out of the wound.

He hadn't been able to chop the boy's head off, but he had been able to cut open one of the Uchiha's veins.

Mangetsu smirked. "Playtime is over, you can't defeat me! I have learned all there is to know about my blade, I am perfection! You can't cut me for I am water, you can't hurt me for I have destroyed my nerves. I am the Hydrification master, I am the one that shall rule this pesky world into eternity!" Mangetsu grinned madly as he saw that the Uchiha mended his flesh wound with green-chakra covered hand. "Now fight me, show me just how inferior you are!"

The boy looked at him defiantly before he started talking "A battle is raging inside me... it is a terrible fight between plants. One is poisonous ivy and represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other plant is a mighty tree that stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith." The Uchiha boy looked at him with a weird glint in his eyes "This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too. Which plant do you think will win inside you, Hozuki Mangetsu?" The boy looked him straight into the eyes unnerving Mangetsu slightly.

Mangetsu thought the Uchiha boy annoying and, instead of answering immediately, he went at the boy once again, this time creating four water clones. "The poison ivy will kill the tree, the tree will fall and the poison ivy shall come out victorious. The poison ivy in this battle is me, I can move like water while you resemble a tree, so static, so unmoving, so limited!"

Mangetsu let his clones attack Uchiha Haru while he prepared his sword to strike at the boy with one of its special forms.

* * *

><p>Harry sighed as he listened to the answer Mangetsu had given him. To his logic the tree would succumb to the poison ivy. How wrong the boy was.<p>

The four water clones were moving in on Harry, not that it mattered. "Ooh, we're going to play clone wars!" Harry said as enthusiastically as he could while creating a total of four water clones as well.

So far he had shown just a few of his jutsu, it was time for some of the bigger stuff. The water clones engaged each other in battle while both the original Harry and Mangetsu remained standing where they were. Harry's sharingan could easily see that Mangetsu was preparing his sword to do one of those shape manipulations again.

"Just like in a real war, -" Harry said collecting a portion of his chakra and inhaling. "The battlefield should burn!" Harry rushed through the needed hand seals and released one of his most lethal fire jutsu "Katon; Gouryuuka no Jutsu" As Harry exhaled the entire field seemed to be burning with the flames of his jutsu. None of the bunshin were able to withstand the burning dragon heads as they all dissipated in steaming explosion, boiling from the inside out.

Only with his enhanced eyesight was Harry able to see Mangetsu crack a confident grin before he readied his sword, placing it directly in front of him, he pointed it in Harry's direction. Harry didn't have time to think before the sword seemed to explode with chakra, becoming a humongous battering-ram that managed to destroy the chakra dragon that Harry while it was rushing towards Harry.

Harry knew he had to evade this incoming battering-ram but also knew that if he let that battering-ram hit the stadium walls they would be destroyed and the people in the stands would die or at least be wounded. The concussive force would simply be too great to allow that to happen.

Harry went through his hand seals faster than he had ever done before as he stomped the ground to create a giant wall of stone that would protect himself and the people behind him in the stands.

* * *

><p>The only Kumo-genin left was looking at this battle with astonishment apparent in her eyes. How could genin fight like that? It was insane. They were throwing around high level jutsu as if they were kunai.<p>

Samui wondered, not for the first time, just how strong these two were. For the moment, both seemed to be restraining themselves from going all. She ducked as Uchiha 'Harry' Haru's wall was utterly destroyed by Mangetsu's sword, throwing rocks in all directions. Lucky for her, there were barriers placed between the arena and the spectators.

Next round she would have to fight one of these two powerhouses. How could she ever compare herself to either of them, while they were obviously so far out of her league? The thought of that question alone frightened her.

Koh, the genin that stood next to her as the only other person left in the contestant booth, cleared his throat. "It is quite the sight to behold, is it not?" he asked her.

"Yes, but a terrifying sight nonetheless." Samui confessed.

"I have been Harry's teammate for more than a year now and I have never seen him fight this seriously while not on a mission." Koh said solemnly. "I am sure that Harry will win this fight, and I am sure that once the free for all fight, the finale, starts we shall have to work together to even get close to him." The Konoha genin was looking at her intently.

"So you want to team up against your own teammate?" Samui quirked her eyebrow. "Why would you do such a thing?" she asked.

Koh didn't say anything for a few moments while, in the arena, the rubble settled and the two genin were revealed to be locked in a tai-jutsu battle. "Because for me to make chuunin, I need to show that I am insightful and not blinded by emotions. What better way to do that than to do the unexpected? What better way than to turn on my own teammate?" he asked.

Samui smiled as an idea hit her like lightning. "Yes, I believe it might be best if we work together no matter which of them we are up against."

* * *

><p>Harry was grateful that his eyes, the famed sharingan, were able to predict exactly what movements Mangetsu would make. They had been interlocked in a tai-jutsu fight for nearly a whole minute now and despite Harry's advantage, he had not been able to inflict a serious enough wound on Mangetsu for the boy to stop attacking him with all his fury.<p>

Harry knew that he would tire out eventually if he kept this up and decided that if he wanted to win he would eventually have to resort to his bigger guns, but first he had to try making Mangetsu give up. This fight had already lasted long enough, he was sure that he would make chuunin after his display earlier in the fight.

Harry took hold of Mangetsu's wrist and body-popped one hundred and sixty-five feet above the arena. As they were now up in the air without footing Harry and Mangetsu both fell towards the ground. "If you promise to give up I will make sure you will safely make it the ground, unharmed."

Mangetsu, whose eyes had widened considerably, looked at Harry in disgust "I never give up! I'd rather die than give up!" he said as made a series of hand seals.

Harry shook his head. "If that is what you-" Harry had to body-pop away before he could finish his sentence as Mangetsu suddenly started to increase in size not unlike the way an Akimichi would. Mangetsu must have become at least twenty times as large as he had been before in just a matter of seconds and was able to land on the ground without any sign of discomfort.

Harry had body popped directly above Mangetsu who was now using his enlarged state to try to grab Harry, not that he succeeded, as Harry could body-pop away before Mangetsu even got close.

'All this body-popping is making me dizzy; I need to go back to the ground.' Harry grimaced as he body-popped again, 'Apparating was never designed to be used this often in such a short time-span.' As he landed on the ground he once more rushed through a series of hand-seals and slammed his hands together. There was still huge amount of water molecules in the air that he could use; all he needed to do was to soften the ground a bit more before he would finish this fight. "Suiton; Mizurappa!" Harry yelled as a huge burst of water was emitted from his mouth.

The stream of water connected with Mangetsu, alerting him to Harry's position. Mangetsu didn't seem troubled at all by the jet of water and actually seemed to enjoy the sensation.

Raising his arms, Mangetsu brought them down on Harry, who smirked in response. Unseen by Mangetsu, Harry had flashed through another series of hand seals as the puddles of water had been forming on the ground.

"Raiton: Jibashiri!" Harry cried out as electricity came out of his hand, connecting with the large puddles of water on the ground in which Mangetsu was standing. As Mangetsu came in contact with the lightning jutsu, he turned into water and fell apart, drenching the entire field in water.

Harry sighed, he still hadn't won, what would it take to defeat this genin? Harry had already used up more than a quarter of his chakra, which was a considerable amount.

Harry took the time it took for Mangetsu to reform to catch his breath.

"You! You have been holding back on me! How dare you!" Mangetsu's voice thundered from behind Harry. Harry turned around to see Mangetsu's head rise out of a puddle, soon followed by his shoulders and the rest of his body.

"Mister pointy teeth, I thought we were just having fun? No need to be so serious." Harry said as even he started to get annoyed by his own childish act. Harry imagined that Mangetsu must have been fed up with it as well.

"Let's see how serious you'll be…" Mangetsu said before taking hold of his blade and facing the contestant booth. "When your friends are on the line! Hahaha" Mangetsu was collecting a lot of chakra in his blade, enough to shatter the barrier around the arena.

Harry couldn't risk letting his friends become hurt, so he body-popped as fast as he could directly in front of Mangetsu as his eyes changed, the normal three tomoe made way for a circle encased by a triangle with three stripes coming out of the circle. As Harry entered Mangetsu's mind he was met by a swirling feeling of hate and disgust.

Before looking any further he saw that Mangetsu was indeed willing to hurt innocent bystanders if it meant that Harry would fight seriously. Harry was appalled by this. How could someone be so twisted… it reminded him of other minds he had seen. It reminded him of Voldemort, who would have slaughtered an entire school full of children just to get his hands on Harry. It reminded him of Lucius Malfoy, who was willing to kill Harry's wife just to become master of the elder wand. It reminded him of Cornelius Fudge, who had been willing to let thousands of people die as long as it meant that he remained in the seat of power.

This mind resembled the same sick mind as Orochimaru. One who killed just for the heck of it, who didn't necessarily enjoy the sensation as much as he enjoyed the power it gave him over other people.

Harry was horrified.

Harry felt sick to his very core.

Harry had to rid the world of this evil; first he had to try it through peaceful means.

The entire crowd was silent as a booming voice was heard through the arena. "Tengoku no Yokubou"

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><p>In the kage booth the Sandaime Hokage's eyes widened. "Oh dear."<p>

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><p>In the jounin booth, where both Terumi and Kirabi were looking at the battle of the two insanely powerful genin they heard the grey haired jounin gasp. "To think he…"<p>

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><p>In the stands everyone was silent, all looked in anticipation at what would happen after the young, black haired boy had so ominously said 'Tengoku no Yokubou'. But among the many villagers was one adolescent, one raven-haired young man that knew what was taking place down in the arena. 'Not all souls can be saved little brother.' The young man thought before standing up and slowly walking towards the exit.<p>

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><p>In the contestant booth the two remaining genin were both wondering what was happening. Koh had only seen Harry's eyes like that once before, on the night their original jounin-instructor died. Back then, Harry had unleashed a power so dangerous that he had nearly killed the Sannin Orochimaru.<p>

Koh wondered what made Harry desperate enough to use those eyes now, while fighting in a mere chuunin exam.

Samui, on the other hand, simply looked at the Uchiha boy and Mangetsu standing in front of each other, neither one moving.

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><p>Mangetsu was lying on the ground gazing at the most beautiful sky he had ever seen. Around him it was the purest of green, as grass seemed to have taken hold of all the ground. He wondered how he had ended up here, in this world where he felt almost at peace.<p>

But something was off, Mangetsu never felt at peace, it was something that he had never known and something that just was not meant for him, what was it that was fooling around with his senses? What was it that was trying to dull his edge?

As he was starting to realize something was not right a sudden urge to stay down overcame him, almost as if the wind was whispering to him to sleep. To sleep and forget all the hatred that he had ever held. Bidding him to think of feelings like love, the emotions he held for his younger brother Suigetsu.

Mangetsu became enraged as a voice inside his head told him that something was trying to manipulate him and trying to influence him! He, who had become the second coming of the demon of the mist. He, who had been chosen to join the seven swordsmen of the mist above all other. He, who had mastered all of the seven swords. He, who had been the first to perfect the hydrification technique. He, who killed simply because he could. He, who had killed more men and women than he could possibly name. _How could he, who had accomplished so much, allow himself to let go of his of his main tool, how could he ever let go of his hatred?"_

What was it that was trying to dull his edge? And then it dawned on him. It was not what, but who!

"Uchiha!" Mangetsu screamed as the world around slowly seemed to lose its color.

"It is a shame there is no road of redemption for you." The wind whispered eerily in his ear. "This entire world, this entire dimension was created for those who could be saved, for those who still had a spark of peace in them, for those who still could see the light."

Mangetsu felt trapped, he couldn't move as slowly vines were crawling up his legs. "In this dimension I am god. In this dimension I judge whether you are worthy of my faith in your humanity. If it is my desire to let you survive, you could, if it is my desire to let you die… you will." The wind that whispered into his ear gained form, first he could slowly see two green orbs appear in front of him but soon he was able to see the body of a six-year-old boy, the body of Uchiha Haru.

"Did you know that in another world I am Master of Death? That because I am the Master of Death also makes me the Master of Life?" Harry looked at Mangetsu with sorrow filled eyes. "In my world I have judged millions of souls redeemable and only a handful of souls I have condemned to the pits of hell." The green eyes slowly formed tears, Mangetsu wanted to scream, to yell, and to threaten the boy but he could produce no sound, could not control a single muscle.

"It was a burden I could no longer bear. It was a burden I thought I had escaped… But it seems that this world is not at all unlike my own. I have judged you, Hozuki Mangetsu. I have judged you and found you guilty. I will allow you one last wish before you will die in the real world." The vines that had held Mangetsu's mouth closed retreated.

"One last wish huh? You think you can kill me? YOU CANNOT DO SUCH A THING! MY BODY IS PERFECTION, I AM IMMORTAL! I AM THE WATER ITSELF! KILLING ME IS IMPOSSIBLE! A LAST WISH? I WISH TO LIVE FOREVER AS THE PERFECT BEING I AM!" as soon as Mangetsu had screamed his wish he was silenced once more.

"If that is your wish I will grant you that much, you will live forever." The green eyes slowly faded as all around him the world seemed to fall apart and his vision went black.

* * *

><p>Mangetsu was back in his normal body, but he was tired, too tired to even lift a finger and he could only stare in shock at the child standing in front of him.<p>

"I asked you earlier which would win, the tree or poison ivy. The answer is simple: it will be whichever one you feed and nourish. You will feed my tree of hope and will live forever as a part of my resolve." The Uchiha whispered in Mangetsu's ear as he was leaning forward.

Then, faster than Mangetsu could currently follow the boy flashed through a series of hand seals and with three final words said goodbye. "**Mokuton; Jubaku Eisou**"

Vines appeared out of the ground and latched onto Mangetsu, making him unable to move. The vines rapidly started to grow and grow as Mangetsu's body was steadily being absorbed by the tree. Meanwhile the ground was shaking and the crowd was either looking on in shock or in awe at what was happening. The water user seemed to whither as the tree grew taller, and before the already humongous tree was done growing, Mangetsu disappeared into it. Forever living as the perfect being inside the soil of Kumo.

The crowd, as one, knew that exact moment, when that tree had formed and the taller genin perished he had been found guilty. And they knew, as certain as the sun came in the morning and the sky darkened at night that the smaller boy's judgement had been just.

Harry looked up to face the Hokage as he picked up Mangetsu's sword. The Hokage looked at him without any sign of emotion, but Harry knew that the Hokage understood.

Harry, after picking the sword up, walked towards the jounin booth as Darui declared him the winner. Standing before Terumi Mei, Mangetsu's jounin instructor, he held up her student's sword. "I am sorry I had to go to such lengths. I offer you his sword in hope that you can one day forgive me for my deed." Harry kneeled holding the sword above his head.

Terumi grabbed the sword with one hand, and while still appearing shocked, she walked away, silently thanking the little boy for ending the life of a person that had killed her sister, mother and father… It seemed that revenge tasted sweet after all. The Mizukage had been right. As if he was ever wrong... As she closed the door behind herself, she cried tears of happiness.

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><p><strong>AN<strong>: OMG, did Harry just use Mokuton?

I've spent a lot of time thinking about how the battle between Mangetsu and Harry would go, I've always known that Mangetsu was going to die, he had to for certain characters to do certain things later on...

Also did you all notice how much the 'Mizukage' has influenced this chuunin exam?

**I still haven't decided who will win the 1 vs 1 vs 1 fight between Koh, Samui and Harry. So let's vote (you can vote on my profile page).**

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><p>There were a lot of jutsu used in this chapter, so I thought it might have been useful to describe them here.<p>

**Doton-bunshin**: A more difficult version of the bunshin or clone taught at the academy, made of stone.

**Raiton-bunshin**: A more difficult version of the bunshin or clone taught at the academy, disperses in electricity.

**Youton; Yochi atemono buranketto**: Lava release; World covering blanket: a jutsu with which Kurotsuchi is able to create large volumes of lava that flow out of her pores after building up huge amounts of chakra. The pool of lava can than be freely controlled by the user.

**Hydrification technique**: Basically means that the user's body can be converted into water to avoid damage or to alter the physical body by adding mass or removing it.

**Hishou no shikkyaku komettos**: Flight of the falling comets; The user body-pops high into the air and creates several exploding-clones that then rush towards the ground where they can wreak havoc as soon as they touch anything.

**Suiton; Suijin Heki**: basically means water-wall, the user collects water from around him and forces it to spin around him in a vortex becoming an almost impenetrable wall.

**Suishoha**: Basically takes all the water around the user and causes it to enlarge the volume of water exponentially. The water can then be directed at the target.

**Katon; Gouryuuka no Jutsu**: Consider it to be a huge ball of fire in the shape of a dragons head that has a concussive force that can even get through concrete without dying out.

**Suiton; Mizurappa**: Fires a stream of high-pressured water towards a target.

**Raiton: Jibashiri**: The user directs large amounts of electricity through his hands, the electricity causes paralyzation if it is potent enough.

**Tengoku no Yokubou**: World of Desire: Harry's version of Tsukuyomi, If Harry has his Mangekyou activated he can draw a person into this genjutsu.

**Mokuton; Jubaku Eisou**: Wood release; Tree Restraint Eternal Burial; a unique Ninjutsu used by wood-release users. First the user may blanket the area in water. Next he will form hand seals to create vines of woods to grow from the ground an entangle his target. These vines will continue to grow into a large tree, further restricting the enemy's movements and preventing their escape. Finally the growth of the gigantic tree will be enough to permanently crush and entomb their body while simultaneously drying the grounds from which it sprouted.


	25. The end of part 1, the start of part 2

**AN: Sorry for taking such a long LONG time; I hope everyone still remembers what happened last chapter.**

**A huge thanks to all the reviewers; you were the only thing keeping me writing despite not really having inspiration.. From here on out I might have to change the rating to M for it will get disturbing at some points though it will start out quite easy and light, it will soon turn around and get ugly. You see Harry is strong; stronger than what would fit into the canon-verse; so the opponents will get stronger and cleverer as well.**

**This chapter concludes the chuunin exam and marks the end of part one of this story, so buckle up and sit tight because this might end up to be quite a ride. Longest fight-scene I've ever written, I really hope you end up liking it.**

**A huge thank you goes out to C.J.C. of DLP for BETA'ing this chapter.**

**Now without further ado:**

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><p><strong>Chapter 24: The end of part one, the start of part two<strong>

Walking through the streets of Konoha was a blonde boy. The boy at first glance didn't seem all that important or even special but if one looked at the boy's future one could see that the entire world depended on what this boy would do the next time he was given a choice it would decide whether or not villages would rise or fall, whether or not the world would see another sunrise after 'that' day.

The boy knew what his destination was, he had been told that as soon as 'he' returned they would meet each other there, so that was why Naruto had been going there every single day after sitting through class (yes, he went to school every day and sat through Iruka-sensei's boring classes because he was dumb enough to lose a bet… but that is another story). He was walking towards the only orange colored bench in the entirety of Konoha waiting for his first friend.

You see, his first friend had to go away for a few weeks, his first friend was a real ninja and as real ninja's do, his friend had to travel to a country far and away from Konoha where he would fight in a epic destiny-changing tournament where he would have to prove his worth as a ninja.

Yes his first friend sure knew how to word things properly.

Naruto, as soon as the orange bench came in his sight ran towards it because he saw that his first friend ever had returned from his all-important tournament. "Harry!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, not being able to contain his excitement. "You're back!"

The boy that was sitting on the only orange colored bench in Konoha flashed Naruto a teeth revealing smile. "So it seems, and guess what? I am still in one piece!" the boy said while Naruto was hugging him.

"You have to tell me everything! The old man has been back for a few days but he didn't tell me! So tell me, tell me; did you make chuunin? Did you win? Who did you have to fight? Did you get hurt? Di-" Naruto questioned the smaller boy before he was cut off.

"Sssht, I will tell you exactly what happened, but first I have to ask you something, and it is a very serious question." At saying that the smaller boy stifled a laugh. Naruto's face turned serious as his smile made way for a thoughtful looking gaze. "Do you want to eat ramen first or do you want to hear just how the chuunin exam went?"

Far away thunderclouds announced that the fate of the world was going to be decided by just how the boy was going to answer. Lightning struck a tree in an arena that had, just a few days earlier housed the final part of the chuunin exam at the same moment as Naruto full heartedly said "Ichiraku, here we come!"

* * *

><p>After describing to Naruto what he had done through the entire chuunin exam, leaving out only the smallest of details like how Kakashi-sensei had been reading his Icha Icha-paradise books while watching him and his team fight and how Harry had actually killed not just defeated Mangetsu Harry arrived to the part of the finals. "The last fight, had shaken the entire stadium. And it had all started with the strangest meeting I had ever had."<p>

"You see, after I had given Mangetsu's sword back and Terumi Mei had walked out of the room I was left with Kakashi-sensei and this really big rapper-ninja! He went through his knees to see eye to eye and was like…

* * *

><p>"Yo, bakerayo. Imma enjoy seeing you throw it out against Samui oh!" The blonde giant of a man was moving his hands in a erratic way.<p>

"I'm sure our students will give us a show that will be very entertaining to watch." Kakashi said as if answering a question. "Now, if you don't mind, I need to talk with my student." Kakashi placed his hand on Harry's shoulder before his vision was filled with green leafs that swirled around him.

Harry blinked as he was no longer standing in the same room as just a second ago. "You really ought to teach me how to do that Kakashi-sensei; it is so much cooler than my body popping!" The room Harry and Kakashi were standing in seemed unending. The walls were pitch black and white dots that gave the illusion of stars were on the ceiling.

Harry felt somewhat disorientated after being 'transported' from the bright jounin-booth into this dark room. "Why did you bring me here?" Harry asked while staring up to catch Kakashi's eye.

Kakashi looked down at Harry. Harry wanted to use his legilimency to find out what was on the man's mind. He didn't say a thing but Harry could feel there was some sort of tension in the air. What was it that made Kakashi look so serious? As Kakashi sighed it hit Harry like a brick wall falling down on him.

"I killed him with that jutsu." Harry suddenly felt as if he was under a magnifying glass, being observed as if he was some sort of insect. "I killed him, and you… what is it you brought me here for Kakashi-sensei?" Harry had to play this right. He hadn't killed anyone in this world yet, who knew how Kakashi might react? They hadn't discussed it before, not like this. They had talked about killing your enemy; of course. They had talked about assassination when ordered to by the Hokage. Kakashi had told them about killing enemies to protect his comrades but never had he said anything about killing someone when you could have; just as easily, knocked them out.

"You killed someone for the first time, Harry." Kakashi leaned against the wall before slowly sliding down and sitting with one knee up. "I need to make sure you know what this means."

Harry hadn't fully realized yet just how important one's first kill was. It was not something he had researched in the scrolls at home and it wasn't something that was brought up at the academy. Harry's mind was racing; what would a normal genin say? What would Kakashi expect him to say? Harry wanted to peek inside Kakashi's mind to find the answer but he couldn't break his promise to the Hokage, not for something like this. Silence made itself master of the room as Kakashi waited for an answer and Harry remained quiet while thinking.

"I…" Harry wanted to answer but was distracted by how young his own voice sounded. The body he was currently in was only six years old… only six years and Harry had already managed to make it a killing device. 'how fitting' he thought as he remembered his previous life. He had killed many people for the same reason he had today. At first because it was expected of him but after centuries went by and people slowly started to forget Harry's role in the world, the role of the savior boy, the chosen one; after a while Harry killed those who didn't deserve to live because he needed to keep balance. Needed to fulfill his true meaning in life. But he wasn't that person any more. He was a ninja now; his priorities should've shifted. "I…"

But they hadn't.

They hadn't changed at all. He had let the Uchiha die because there needed to be balance. Too much negativity would give way to hate and destruction, it would slaughter feelings of hope and joy it would only leave behind the burned ashes of misery.

Harry realized once more that his role; his only role in life, be it his first one or his second; he was meant as the scale. The scale between utter hopelessness and pure unfiltered hope. Master of Death, Master of Life; the scale keeper. The words flooded Harry's mind before he pushed them away; it would not do to go in much deeper than that, at the moment he was but a boy who had just killed another person for the first time.

"I believe I did what was needed." Kakashi's eye didn't betray any kind of feeling to that answer. But Harry didn't need to see in order to know what Kakashi felt. "He wanted to kill Koh, he would've killed Yuugi! All because he had this twisted idea in his head that no one was more important than he was, all life around him was worth no more than the dirt under his shoes! How could I not end a life like that? Should I have let him go on terrorizing everyone he met? Imagine the hurt he must have caused already, the hurt he would've cost in the future!" Harry's blood was boiling as he explained his reasons. "I couldn't let a person like that live on. I couldn't risk it."

Kakashi just sat there, unresponsive, why didn't he say something? Once again silence took hold of the dark room.

Harry calmed himself down; his hair was sweaty and dangling in front of his eyes. His fight with Mangetsu had tired him more than he had first thought. As the adrenaline in his body was slowly dissipating Harry felt that his muscles were actually hurting. His skin had been scrapped a few times in his hand to hand fight with Mangetsu.

Harry redirected his chakra to start working on healing his wounds; he had actually been struck by the hydrification user multiple times.

"I have taught you a lot of things Harry, I have taught you monsterous jutsu's. I have taught you silly jokes. I have helped you find the secrets of your chakra Harry. But I cannot teach you how to make the right choices when it comes to let live or die. You should always follow your instincts, always, don't let others cloud your judgment." Kakashi eyed Harry for a moment before continuing. "You are a ninja Harry, killing people is part of your job, but never forget that, however easy it may become, we do not just kill, we protect." Kakashi petted Harry's shoulder before standing up.

"So I did the right thing back there?" Harry's voice sounded so much more fragile than he had wanted, it was almost like he was asking for forgiveness; even though he knew to his very core that what he had done was just.

"You used the gifts bestowed upon you in the best way that you could." Kakashi gave Harry his famous eye-smile. "And you showed everyone that Konoha's tree still stands as mighty as it did when the First planted the seeds, you did well Harry."

Harry knew that for Konoha this was like a jackpot when it came to publicity. An Uchiha that was capable of teleportation and mokuton. An Uchiha that had been experimented on by Orochimaru, an Uchiha with Senju cells.

"You have one hundred and eighty minutes to get ready, in the mean time you should freshen yourself up and change your clothing." Kakashi clapped his hands twice as the white dots on the ceiling started to glow brighter and lightened the room, revealing a huge suite. "Kumo has made sure that none of the finalists have any discomforts, enjoy the luxury and get some sleep. I'll see you in the arena in three hours."

As Kakashi walked out of the room Harry rushed himself to the huge bathtub that was in the bathing room.

"Ahhh, time to relax."

* * *

><p>Oonoki was old, he knew that. But he was also as dangerous as he was old. A keen mind not unlike the third Hokage. A sharp eye not unlike the First Tsuchikage. He was a patient man when needed, it was a lesson he had learned as a brash young man; only those who wait will see the end.<p>

As a young man Oonoki had made many mistakes because he had acted before he thought. Because he had spoken up before it was his time. Because his mind had already been set before he had even considered all other options.

He had waited exactly three seconds too few before losing his teammate and killing his enemy.

He had waited exactly five seconds too few before he asked out an obviously married woman, if her husband was anything to go by.

He had waited eight seconds too few before he accepted the hat of the Tsuchikage and all the responsibility that went with it.

As the third Tsuchikage Oonoki had taken all the time he needed to make his mistakes.

He had waited a day too long with firing the council.

He had waited two days too long with instating law one hundred nine.

He had waited one year too long before he gave up on his war with Konoha.

But as always Oonoki had learned from his mistakes, he had become wiser; he had become a true world leader. And as every true world leader he knew a possible threat when he saw it.

It had been almost three hours ago that the smallest runt of all the participating runts had killed his opponent. Not that Oonoki cared about the death of a genin in the slightest. No what had interested him was the fact that the water boy had only moments earlier been ready to slaughter the friends of the smaller runt. And then as if struck by lightning the water boy froze in his movements before a tree erupted from the ground that consumed him.

Oonoki was many things, but unobservant wasn't one of them. He had seen the boy use the same eyes as Uchiha Madara. The same cursed eyes had looked at the water boy before his fate had been sealed.

A thousand simulations were playing in Oonoki's head, in some he had killed the small child with the red eyes before he had taken hold of the sword that Mangetsu had dropped. In a few more he had simply issued a kill on sight order for the small boy; those eyes were truly special, special enough to start a war over. But Oonoki had grown wise with the years; he had become the great fence sitter for a reason and truth be told; Iwa was not ready for a full out war against Konoha just yet.

So as all wise world leaders did when a possible threat came known to them Oonoki leaned back and took his time with watching the small boy's legend unfold before his very eyes.

* * *

><p>Three genin were walking into the arena. It had been three full hours since the last battle had been fought and the terrain looked spectacular. The arena had started out almost serene in the morning but after the earlier rounds it wasn't even recognizable anymore.<p>

Almost in the exact middle of the round arena stood a high, thick tree with a foliage filled with leafs and twigs; it blocked the sun's light that was still high in the sky. The air on the field tasted dry and small dust clouds could be seen clashing with the craters and stone slabs. The ground looked cracked as if it hadn't rained for years and it looked almost colorless, which was in stark contrast with the three genin that were making their way to the middle of the arena.

The smallest of the three genin, Uchiha Haru was dressed in dark red colors. Unlike his previous clothing the boy was wearing armor consisting of leather shoes and iron plated body parts, the only thing missing was a helmet or the boy would've looked like a samurai, a small samurai but a samurai nonetheless.

Nearly on the opposite of him a taller boy was standing with his arms interlocked. The boy had dark spikey hair and sunglasses that obstructed any sight of his eyes, whether the boy hid them for a purpose was unknown but in combination with the large grey cloak the boy was wearing it made him look like an intimidating person.

On the nearly opposite of the taller boy was a blonde girl that looked every bit as dangerous and intimidating as the previous two, perhaps even more so when one bothered to look at all the ninja tools she had strapped on her body. On her back a small blade was resting while trying to glister in the little bit of sunlight that managed to get through the thick foliage above them.

The three children, because do not forget that that is what they are despite their profession, were standing in a perfect triangle around a dark skinned man with near white-blonde hair. The man was almost three times as large as the smallest boy and almost twice as wide as the only girl on the field. This man was, despite not looking like it, the proctor of this chuunin exam and rumor had it that this person also had a big influence on whoever made it to chuunin and who didn't.

The man waited until the crowds silenced down before speaking the legendary words that were always shared before the finale fight. The crowds were sitting on the edge of their seat. As was tradition the final fight would be the most epic of them all, none of the genin would hold back in these fights. Years ago the two-tailed Jinchuuriki had her chuunin exam in this same tournament and released a power that was still talked about these days, she had made the very burn into flame. Years before that Darui, the current proctor, had unleashed a storm so powerful that his opponents had fallen into a coma after mere seconds of impact. Yes, tournaments like this were spectacles. Spectacles that created chuunin of fame; that created jounin of fearsome power; that created legends.

The crowds seemed to hold their breath and even the birds that had seated themselves in the newly formed tree had silenced in anticipation of what was to come. The proctor tilted his head so everyone could see his face. "Today, under the watchful eye of the three Kage present, three genin will fight for the honor of becoming chuunin. In this fight there are no rules, no limitations. There will only be one victor and he or she has will have the right to the title chuunin by default." The crowds shouted in excitement and started chanting their favorite's name. "All bets have been placed, all preparations have been made, all genin are ready to fight this battle to the very end and so with great pride and honor I announce the final of the twenty-third chuunin exam, you may start!"

After his announcement the proctor vanished in a blur to make way for the three genin, the doors that gave access to the arena closed off, hermetically. The crowds cheered and the genin started.

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><p>Samui, as soon as Darui had started the match, reached for he kunai with tags on them. She was fighting two boys that were at least her equals and so she did what she did best. She observed. She already knew a lot; she knew that for now one of the boys was her ally. She knew that her main target for now was the smallest child, the child with the sharingan eyes. She knew that the one weakness of a doujutsu was that if you couldn't see, it was ineffective.<p>

The tags on the kunai she was currently holding in her hand had a kanji on it that read 'light'. The tags weren't sold often and they were quite expensive but, oh, it was so worth every penny. She had already discussed this with the bug-boy. She would distract the smaller boy, she would keep him busy while bug boy tried to attack when he could, not even the famed sharingan could handle a two versus one fight.

Samui threw her kunai with note just as the small boy activated his sharingan. 'Perfect' she thought. As the kunai was sent flying through the air the small Uchiha was already moving; quite fast. He wasn't running or even moving in the normal sense of the word but his eyes, they were spinning, fast; it was mesmerizing to say the least. For a split second Samui forgot about her tag attached kunai, for a second she was just standing there, unmoving watching those black dots spinning as if putting on a show just for her. However as the kunai came in her line of sight and broke the spell-like effect of the Uchiha's eyes. Samui lifted her hand to concentrate her chakra as the tag started to burn up; Uchiha Haru's eyes widened considerably before the tag burned up and unleashed a blinding light an arm's length away of the young boy.

**-flashback.**

"So you want to team up against your own teammate?" Samui quirked her left eyebrow. "Why would you do such a thing?" she asked.

Koh didn't say anything for a few second while in the arena the rubble settled and the two genin were locked in a tai-jutsu battle. "Because for me to make chuunin I need to show that I am insightful and not blinded by emotions. What better way to do that than to do the unexpected? What better way than to turn on my very own teammate?" he asked.

Samui smiled as an idea hit her like lightning. "Yes, I believe it might be best if we work together if we have to fight either of them. Can you tell me a weakness of your teammate?"

Koh's eyebrows came together in a frown "Haru's greatest strength is also his most obvious weakness. The sharingan can see with a clarity that is rivaled only by the Byakugan. One time, when we were on a mission Haru was fighting a weapon master. The man was strong, terrifyingly so, but Kakashi-sensei was fighting the two other jounin, quite successfully I might add. We were not doing badly considering the circumstances, my teammate Yuugi and Harry both had their doujutsu activated that seemed to give them the edge we needed. However fighting a jounin was way out of our comfort zone, the jounin weaponist knew just what to do against the two doujutsu. He blinded them, for all intents and purposes they could not see for a whole minute before they slowly regained sight." Koh finished by adjusting his sunglasses.

"What did he do? How did he blind the two of them?" Samui asked unsure.

"He threw a barrage of light-bombs."

**-/end flashback**

Samui's lips pressed together to form a small smile, it had worked, how utterly simple. The boy was bent forward with his hands over his eyes while loudly screaming in pain. Looking to her right she could see that the Aburame had already released bugs. The bugs were forming a cloud before they seemed to multiply tenfold and rushing towards the smaller boy. The dark red cloud was out for blood, Samui could feel it and as the bugs swarmed around the Uchiha and were slowly but surely finishing him off she got scared. The bugs were crawling inside the boy's entrances, his ears, and his mouth his nose. He was suffocating before he let out one last scream and dropped to the ground. Slowly the bugs crawled out of the boy. And Samui's feeling of fear soon changed into a mild panic.

If the Aburame could attack his own teammate so viciously, so relentlessly; then what would he do to her?

While the Uchiha boy was lying on the ground, alive but unconscious, Koh turned to face her. "Now, Samui, I believe our previous union can be disbanded-" Koh raised his arm and directed it towards her, "now that our goals do not match anymore."

Samui steeled herself for the incoming onslaught of dark red kikai bugs. 'Not all of the bugs moved at once, odd' Samui mentally noted. As the bugs got closer Samui rushed through her hand seals; creating a raiton-bunshin hardly took anytime but it proved extremely useful as it jumped into the dark cloud of bugs and exploded.

The high voltage electricity that was released as the clone dispersed electrocuted a large portion of the blood sucking and chakra draining bugs. The bugs that died seemed to fall through the air in slow-motion; some seemed to float in the still air. Still, she hadn't killed even half of the little crawling insects which meant that the incoming cloud was still after her with the same vigor. Meanwhile it seemed that the world around her had stopped, the crowds were unmoving and hadn't cheered or gasped ever since Koh had turned on her. Were her parents watching here, if she would just look at the stands she might see them and her brother? She hadn't seen Karui and Omoi after their fights; how were they doing? Were they watching? The kikai bugs got closer and she could hear them buzzing.

Pushing the thoughts about the crowd and everyone else aside; this truly wasn't the time to become distracted, Samui pushed chakra into her legs and ran as fast as she could while keeping both an eye on the swarm of kikai bugs and Koh.

The Uchiha was still on the ground, unmoving. If she was not careful the same fate would befall her. She grabbed the hilt of her tantõ, her faithful Culicidae, and quickened her pace even more.

Koh was just standing still even as her short blade inched ever closer to his torso, was it a trap? Why wasn't he guarding himself against her attack? It didn't matter, she wouldn't hold back because he was too stupid to block her.

Unfortunately, as Samui was only half an inch away from Koh the boy grabbed her arm and pushed his chakra through it.

Out of nowhere a cacophony attacked her senses, the wind was howling and the crowds were shouting. The bugs that she had killed earlier were still swarming the field and the Uchiha that had been defeated first was no longer lying on the ground but was grinning quite madly at her and Koh.

"I see my ever helpful teammate has pulled you out of my genjutsu." The Uchiha smirked. "I honestly didn't expect you to fall for it, genjutsu aren't really my strong suit you see?" the boy slowly brushed off his armor while talking, all the while she and Koh were communicating as well through hand signs.

* * *

><p>"When I was younger I always waited for things to happen to me, I used to only attack after being attacked. I was foolish back then, but how could I not have been, I was but a young child. I am older now and more aware of the horrors of actual combat." Harry was gathering his chakra; it had already been well balanced way before he had entered this battle. His chakra was filling his entire body, he just needed to stall for a few more seconds to make it as potent as possible.<p>

"But you see, despite all that gained knowledge I am still willing to hold back my punches for you, you will be defeated that cannot be changed. But let me give you the option of giving up while you still can with all your dignity intact." Harry already knew how the two genin would react; they would never give up this early in the fight. It was actually a big insult to them for Harry to even offer such a cowardly way out of this battle.

"Harry we will not give up, do you know why? Because we have joined forces, and that will be your downfall, already you are surrounded by my bugs; there is no way out of this situation." Harry could feel that Koh was right, he was surrounded by the blood-red kikai bugs. But that didn't mean he didn't have a way out.

"Don't claim your victory prematurely, Koh." Harry jumped up which triggered Koh into action, with two hand movements the Aburame forced his bugs to collapse on Harry. But Harry had prepared for this while he had been gathering chakra. It most surely was not his most effective attack, it depleted his chakra too fast to be used multiple times in a battle; but for what he needed now it was perfect, it was flashy which would impress the crowds, it was of a high skill level which would impress the Kages, but most of all it was scary, which would intimidate his opponents.

Rushing through an astounding amount of hand seals within a mere second Harry clapped his hands together.

* * *

><p>Koh had just commanded his bugs to pulverize Harry; he had known Harry for quite some time now and as his teammate had fought side by side with the little ninja. He had always known that Harry had hidden depths within him; he had seen it in their very first training session. The way Harry could turn from the very likable child that he normally was into the sharp edged shinobi was almost scary to even him. But he knew his teammate well enough; the boy had become his friend; they had shared secrets with each other.<p>

Koh knew for example that Harry had once put itching powder in Yuugi's shoes. And he had confided in Harry that he had done the same to Harry's own shoes; which caused the boy to laugh that innocent, carefree laugh of his before he had taken of his shoes and hurled them at Koh in revenge.

Koh had told Harry that he still missed Rin-sensei and Harry had said that he missed her too; they had become friends.

Friends that were now fighting with all they had. Was the boy with the blood red eyes that he was currently facing still the same boy he had been friends with for over a year? Or was the Harry he was fighting now another person entirely? He had seen Harry's change as soon as the battle had started, the glistering in his eyes had diminished and made way for an unforgiving glint.

Yes the boy he was now facing had to be someone else entirely. His Harry, his friend could never conjure fear in him with a mere glance. The Harry he knew had eyes that seemed to care for even the smallest bug that Koh had in his hive. But this Harry would kill that bug the instant he laid his eyes on it. The unforgiving red eyes that changed his friend into his enemy now that he was on the receiving end of its power.

Power.

That was what Koh was feeling washing over him in waves. Harry's chakra had always been a comfortable warm cloud he could feel protected in; a nebula of sorts. But now that Harry's chakra had identified him as an enemy the chakra felt more like a boa constrictor that was trying to suffocate him by tightly wrapping itself around his neck.

Power.

The waves of chakra were rapidly increasing in their pressure and seemed to become tangible. Huge waves of chakra seemed to conjure water out of thin air. And at that moment Koh actually feared one of his only true friends; how far was his friend willing to go for the title of chuunin?

"Suiton; Bakusui shouha!" Harry voice boomed through the arena.

* * *

><p>Samui tried to defend herself against the coming tsunami but found she too slow to react properly. Huge volumes of water pushedpulled/slammed her. Seconds felt like minutes as the water surrounded/imprisoned/suffocated her. All around her, all that she could see was water. Water obscured the sun, water obscured the sight of everything, she tried to swim up, up to where there was oxygen so that she could breathe but each time she tried to go up a water current pushed her down.

She tried, and tried but no matter how furiously she moved her arms and legs the water was relentless, it kept pushing her down. It had even managed to push her against the wall. For that she was thankful. The wall was not water, which meant that Haru had no control over it! Wasting no time Samui managed to move her arms against the oppressive water and grabbed two kunai out of her pouch. Using the Kunai she stabbed the wall, fist with her left hand followed quickly by her right. It had taken thirteen seconds but she finally had a way out of the horrible and panic inducing jutsu.

It took another four seconds before Samui managed to work her way up and by then she gladly inhaled the precious oxygen that was in the air. Using chakra she stood on the surface of the water, it looked almost otherworldly, the sight that met her. The bluest blue was filling the stadium, it was almost cerulean blue yet it looked so much more purer than that. This was water the way it was meant to be. Water that gave life and took it away, water that would swallow her whole if it was given the chance but also water that could give life to the sick.

Samui stopped that train of thought. The lack of oxygen must have affected her more than she realized if she was this interested in the way the water moved and glistered in the small rays of sun.

Shaking her head, causing countless of tiny water drops to fall and cause ripples in the calm looking water under her feet, Samui rubbed her eyes and gave herself two seconds to get over her almost death.

After gathering her wits Samui focused on the boy that was sitting in the tree, the sharingan eyes only bothered to look at her for a moment before they focused on something else. The boy had his hands placed in the water and they glowed with bright blue chakra. 'He must be using his chakra to control the water!' Looking around she found that Koh was nowhere in sight, which meant that he was most likely still underwater! 'I need to stop Haru if I want Koh to help me defeat him…' Samui went for her pouch again as she grabbed two kunai with explosive tags. 'But do I want to save Koh? Wouldn't it be better to let Haru defeat Koh and knock Haru unconscious as soon as possible after that?'

However, the decision was taken from her as the brilliant blue water started to get darker, turning purple before violently exploding upwards causing waves that crashed into the still standing tree and Samui. Samui pulled her arms up to protect herself as she was thrown against the wall. Her ears were ringing now, and she felt dizzy.

As the water calmed down once more, Samui dropped her arms next to her side and saw glimpses of Koh in a huge sphere of kikai bugs.

"I cannot believe you managed to do that... Your bugs shouldn't have been able to move their wings with all that water pressure, let alone the water itself. How'd you get out of the water with your entire swarm still alive?" the Uchiha boy withdrew his hands from the water and wiped them dry on his pants. "Too bad, I had hoped to defeat you with that jutsu…"

"You are not the only one who has learned from previous missions and weaknesses that have been exploited, Harry." Koh's swarm was somehow lifting the boy in the air while shielding him at the same time.

'Such an impressive sight compared to these two… I feel like an academy student.' Samui, during the boy's conversation got hold of her sword. 'But I am not without some impressive jutsu myself; let's see how the little boy deals with my kenjutsu.'

Aburame Koh stretched both arms out as more and more bugs seemed to be released. "I coated my bugs in chakra, something like that is not outside of my skillset. Harry, it is time we even the playfield. You have taken hold of the ground, I will take hold of the air." The bugs around Koh started to move erratically, making them look more like one being than thousands of bugs.

"My bugs have been feeding on the chakra of my opponents twice today, I have been preparing for this fight since before entering the finals. I will not succumb to your jutsu as long as I have chakra running through me." Koh finished his speech at the exact moment his bugs started going after Haru.

"May the lord have mercy on you, for 'Culicidae' has none." Samui said as she dropped into a stance closing her eyes, this was her chance, Samui realized.

Her short blade had been drawn, ready to aid her in her fight. "First dance; Dance of the open throat." She whispered. And with chakra under her feet she closed the distance between Haru and her in a split second. The boy's eyes had widened. Koh's bugs had hidden her from his sight; he was effectively using their own tactics against the Uchiha.

Despite her fast movements Haru evaded every possible hit with easy, even managing to find the time to use a jutsu of his own. Samui backed away to prepare for the second dance as Haru released a fire ball from his mouth "Goukakyuu no jutsu" the boy had said as he roasted a small portion of Koh's bugs.

Not that it really mattered what the small Uchiha did, Koh was still releasing bugs from inside his coat; 'How many does he have on him anyways?'; and they were attacking Haru succeeding in distracting him enough for Samui to get through her dances.

'I don't need to do every dance for long; but I can't continue to the next dance without going through the earlier dances; I just hope I won't be the one he will aim his next fireball at.' Samui changed the way she held her tantõ and went charging in for the second dance.

* * *

><p>Harry had been doing three things continuously; first, evade Koh's bugs. Second; evade Samui's sword and third try to find the time to attack Koh's bugs; they presented a bigger threat than Samui.<p>

With his sharingan he could easily follow the blonde's movements; and seeing as the sword was not imbued with chakra he could easily predict what she would do with it.

They had been going at it like this for almost two minutes; evade bugs, evade Samui, try to get rid of the bugs; more bugs being released by Koh and evade the bugs again.

The bugs had become even more annoying than at the start of this routine; they had started to getting louder and louder; disorientating him. Making it harder to focus on Samui's movements. And it was looking like each time Samui went at him she got faster and faster; it was actually starting to get so fast Harry's body could hardly keep up with it.

"Sixth Dance, The bone breaker" Harry heard Samui's voice behind him, behind him! Harry turned around just in time to see Samui coming at him with her short blade in her hand, however the sword was reversed, she had unwrapped the bandage around the hilt and used it to safely hold the blade.

'Too fast.' Harry thought before Samui managed to hit him, he could hear a loud crack before he felt the bones in his left arm split in two.

'Shit, I need to get out; I can't keep this up otherwise.' Taking a deep breath Harry grabbed the girl's hand with both his arms despite the pain that was currently running through him and body-popped them both underwater.

'Koh's bugs won't be able to reach us easily and I can control this water. It is time to take this battle to the next level.'

Letting go of Samui and distancing himself from her Harry guided his chakra through the water around him; preparing to take down Samui for real this time but it seemed that Samui had other ideas entirely. Somehow she managed to get hold of Harry once more; her movements were sluggish in the water compared to when she was walking on it but she was still insanely more faster than what should have been possible for her. 'How come she is suddenly so fast, it doesn't look like she is using chakra to augment her muscles or anything, the strain would be visible if she did that…' she was holding her sword with it's point clearly aiming for Harry's heart. She moved her mouth as bubbles of air were released.

Harry panicked, she was radiating killer intent; she was seriously going to kill him!

Harry body-popped once more, this time they ended up high in the sky, miles away from the ground. "If you want to survive this fall, you will sheath your sword now!" Harry said hoping she would do just that.

Samui's eyes told him everything he needed, they looked panicked. "I can take you to the ground safely, but sheath your sword."

* * *

><p>In the Kage booth three, somewhat wise, men were watching what was happening with intense eyes. "It seems like your boy wonder has met his match in Samui." A said with a hint pride in his voice.<p>

The hokage didn't respond directly as he suddenly looked up as the chakra signatures changed location once more. "Yes, young Samui shows great potential. Her mastery of the Eight dances makes her quite the opponent for young Harry. Especially as she seems to have joined forces with Aburame Koh."

Oonoki, the third Tsuchikage, nodded his head at that statement. "Good teamwork is instrumental when it comes to fights like this. I am surprised to see how well that Aburame has managed to match his own style to that of the girl's. It speaks volumes of his intelligence and skill."

"That maybe so but he is just waiting his time out; he is letting Samui and the young Uchiha tire each other out while he is manipulating the field ever so subtle. It seems like we have three genin that are capable of not only fighting in the moment but also planning ahead. It is that quality that I can appreciate the most; they are not just brute force; they know when to go full out and when to fall back." The Hokage smiled before his eyes started to narrow. "Young Uchiha Haru is in a predicament though; fighting not only a very skilled opponent but also fighting his own teammate who seems to know most of his moves." The hokage folded his hands and leaned back in his chair. "It seems that Samui is the one who is at the disadvantage now."

The Raikage laughed at that statement. "Come on Hokage-dono, don't tell me you can't see what the Aburame has prepared?"

Sarutobi shook his head sagely "It is all about looking underneath the underneath; Koh will dispose of Samui as soon as she is no longer of use to him. Don't tell me you can't see that."

"I hate to say this Raikage, But Hokage is right; the Aburame has set the field, he will save the girl; earn her trust and when she least expects it, she will fall."

The Raikage stayed silent; he had placed a lot of money on Samui; and he refused to see that money go to waste.

* * *

><p>Samui had sheathed her sword; she had given in; there was no way she would survive this fall without the help of the small Uchiha. The wind rushing through her hair was nice though; it felt almost relaxing; almost, because she knew that as soon as they reached the ground she would have to fight again; she still had her last dance, after the spectacular failure of the seventh dance she had used under water it was time for the eighth dance; the dance that would finish this fight; she could finish both Haru and Koh with this dance.<p>

All she needed her footing.

The wind was still rushing through her hair, her fingers. It surrounded her she looked at Haru wondering why he hadn't teleported them back yet only to find that he was gone.

He had lied!

The wind that had been blowing through her hair started to howl, the sound matched her current feelings of impending doom. But within moments the sounds changed no longer was the wind howling, it was buzzing and no longer was there actual wind blowing through her hair but hundreds if not thousands of bugs were somehow slowing her descent down. It didn't take long before she reached the water filled arena and stood on her own two legs.

"Thank you." Samui said looking at Koh who had a concentrated look on his face. "If you can distract him for a few seconds, I will make this fight between just you and me." The words had hardly left Samui's lips before Koh spread out his arms and he vanished from view as bugs started surrounding him, her and the space between them and Harry. 'Perfect.'

It was finally time for Samui to slip into her last stance; the stance that marked the ending of this match. She put her tantõ back in its sheath and crossed her arms. "The last dance is my strongest offensive technique sacrificing all my defenses; I use all the chakra that I have left in my body to make myself the ultimate sword!" lightning started to appear around Samui while her voice boomed through the arena, it looked as if she was statically charged as her hair started to spike. "With this much chakra concentrated in and around my body I know exactly where everyone is!" Samui, faster than she had moved before, turned around and somehow slashed the Uchiha that had tried to get closer to her for a sneak attack with her fingertips.

The boy's armor seemed to be cut through as if it offered no resistance. The electricity around Samui flared up as the bugs between her and Haru got fried, the fell into the water but soon got replaced by new ones. Samui didn't stop though; seeing the wide-eyed Uchiha just at arm's length away from her she pressed her attack on. She started to spin around and make stabbing motions with her hands destroying the kikai bugs and managing to hit Haru's armor several times.

"Eighth Dance; Death" Samui said vanishing from everyones sight; the only reason everyone knew she was still in the arena was because the electricity was still crackling.

"Suiton: Suijin Heki." Haru screamed after flashing through a series of hand seals. The water under his feet started to rise and created a wall around the small Uchiha; a wall of water that was spinning fast enough for it to actually cut a leaf that had fallen off the branch.

It didn't bother Samui though; in this last dance water, no matter how fast it was spinning around, could not stop her. Her hand was covered in chakra fueled electricity. She stopped moving around and stood still, she could vaguely see Haru's body though the water and struck it with her hand. The water around her hand and arm evaporated instantly, it didn't even look like she had noticed it was there it didn't stop at the water though, her hand pierced through Haru's armor and with a sickening sound it pierced through his left shoulder once again Haru's eyes closed and his face contorted in pain before he let out a high pitched scream. Samui didn't let it bother her; if she was to show everyone what she was capable of she had to numb her feelings of concern for the boy and finish the job. All she needed was for the Uchiha to not be able to fight anymore.

She withdrew her hand, the blood on it seemed to dry in mere moments leaving behind brown stains. Samui made use of the boy's distracted state and stabbed the boy once more with her other hand this time managing to completely go through the boy's body; taking a huge chunk of flesh from the boy's side. She had missed his spleen but the pain would certainly make the boy lose conscious.

The water wall that had surrounded Haru had collapsed onto itself as the young Uchiha fell onto his knees. His skin had paled significantly making drops of splashed water on to his face look like he had a high fever.

Samui knew she had taken out Haru, now it was time for Koh.

* * *

><p>After being stabbed twice by Samui, Harry couldn't move his body. His whole body was hurting. He could feel his chakra rushing through him trying to heal him as fast as possible, but without the proper jutsu he wouldn't make it before the match ended.<p>

Harry tried to use his occlumency to calm himself, his mind was panicking but he could not use that at the moment. What he needed was to make his chakra emotionless, let it fill him up so that nothing but chakra was in his system. Harry balanced it out making it a steady stream that was now filling his every cell.

Harry had closed his eyes but knew that his hands were glowing with green chakra, chakra that was softly pulsating. It gave off a very peaceful feeling even as he tried to reach his shoulder to heal the puncture wound and the roasted flesh. It would most definitely leave a scar, but that was what you get while fighting.

It had surprised Harry tremendously that Samui had managed to go through his water wall. He had performed it in a rush but it had still been created perfectly; as every of his jutsu's had been when he had his sharingan activated. The water wall was one of his strongest defenses, it had withstood huge boulders and fires when he had battled his own bunshin, the fact that Samui had managed to slice through it as if it were nothing more than air was disturbing.

'She had said that it was dance of death; that she had sacrificed all her defenses for this ultimate sword. It must act a lot like Kakashi's Raikiri, yet it didn't sound or look like it.' Harry winced as he felt his chakra cleaning the wound. 'She did a real number on me there; I should have created clones to fight them… or just defeat them as soon as we started while they were in the genjutsu. Note to self: don't play around when fighting.' Harry regretted his earlier decision to let both Koh and Samui have their moment to shine as well.

The shoulder wound had stopped bleeding and was slowly regenerating; too slow. How could he win this duel if he couldn't even stand up straight? Harry pushed more of his chakra into the healing jutsu; he wouldn't have any chakra left if he healed both wounds perfectly. All he could do was stop the bleeding and make sure it could endure him moving.

It had been a full minute and his shoulder had finally been tended to enough for him to start working on his side. He had never treated his own wounds like this; Samui had actually managed to cut off a piece of his body. Albeit not much, only and inch and a half, but considering the size of his body it was more than he could afford.

Harry cleaned the wound the same as he had with the puncture wound in his shoulder, the heat that he exuded from his palms while guiding his chakra was a welcome side effect. The water he was floating on had been cooling him off, he hadn't realized that the water he had created earlier on was almost as cold as ice, that was something he should probably remember, all aspects of a jutsu were important, that included the temperature. Harry pushed the thought from his mind; it would not do to become distracted at the moment. He had but one job to do now and that was getting well enough to finish this fight.

It took another minute before Harry felt he was ready to continue the fight. He had taken some extra time to regenerate the flesh. Koh and Samui were still battling it out. It looked like Samui had the upper hand, she moved graciously, her mere presence roasted Koh's bugs. It was beautiful as it was scary.

'I cannot believe that the girl who was not even able to get out of my genjutsu is capable of such destruction. But it looks like Koh has just been evading her with his bunshins, if the piles of dead bugs is anything to go by.' Harry gave himself a few seconds to observe the battle field. It was still filled with water despite it getting evaporated wherever Samui was standing.

'How does she keep up with the chakra that she is exuding? She hasn't eaten any soldier pills, as far as I could see, and she hasn't stored her chakra anywhere that is way out of her league, so where does she get the chakra from… could she be? No.' Harry worried for a split second that Samui might have been the Nibi Jinchuuriki, but that was impossible. The Nibi had been sealed almost twenty years ago and Samui was only a teenager. 'But then what is her secret? Her eyes show that she is straining her body, could it be that she is using the inner gates? It would explain the crazy amount of chakra and the change in her speed… Either that or she has a bloodline limit that I haven't heard about before. She must have been training a lot though to reach this kind of mastery in a jutsu. Not even I could keep up a constant stream of chakra like that without damaging my chakra pathways.'

Harry activated his sharingan once more, what he wouldn't give for his wand right now. Two stunners and this match would be over. Moving slower than he felt comfortable with Harry pulled himself up. No one seemed to notice him though, Koh and Samui were focused entirely on each other. Koh was trying to suck all the chakra out of Samui with his kikai bugs while Samui tried to reach Koh.

Harry realized that his best chance at winning this fight was if he got both Samui and Koh in one shot. Emerging himself in the water he had created earlier in the fight Harry felt his chakra connecting with the water once more. He didn't have a lot of chakra left; the medical jutsu having depleted him almost entirely. 'only enough for one more jutsu… I will have to make it count I guess'

* * *

><p>Sarutobi looked down into the arena. It had not surprised him that Samui had managed to cut through the small Uchiha's defenses, the water wall was an astounding defensive jutsu but it was never meant as a defensive jutsu. His sensei; Tobirama had created the jutsu because it summoned a lot of water around him that could be used in an offensive jutsu while it hid him from sight.<p>

It was not the first time that Hiruzen had seen a promising shinobi use a jutsu the wrong way. Young ninja learned high leveled jutsu that were extremely useful when used properly but they almost never managed to use it to the fullest extent. It was what separated the good from the great. It was what had made him the strongest shinobi for over forty years. It was something that young Uchiha Haru still had to learn.

"This is the second time in my life that I've been given the opportunity to watch the eighth dance, and I must admit it is still as fearsome as when the Nidaime Raikage used it against the Nidaime Hokage, it shows just how talented this girl is." Sarutobi complimented.

"Samui is one of the strongest kunoichi that have come out of the academy the last three years, it is why I placed her under my own brother. Talent should be nurtured by the best, talent needs talented teachers or talent will be wasted." The Raikage said proudly. "But admittedly, the Aburame seems to hold his own quite well. And what is that? Is the Uchiha healing himself?"

Hiruzen raised his eyebrows. "It seems so." He said more to himself than to the Raikage. "The girl did quite the number on him; it will take considerable will to heal despite those injuries."

He kept his eyes focused on the fight between Samui and Koh; they were tiring each other out. Koh had put a lot of his chakra in creating more and more bugs earlier in the fight and it paid off now; yet Samui had turned herself into a dangerous weapon. Koh couldn't get close without losing hundreds of his bugs in mere seconds and Samui couldn't get close enough to actually hit Koh because he kept confusing her with his clones. It was a bit of a standstill, a battle of endurance. Who would be able to keep this pace up longer?

Looking at the black haired Uchiha, he could not help but place his bets on Uchiha Haru. The boy was currently working on patching himself up and Hiruzen knew exactly what the boy would do. He would strike as soon as one of his opponents showed a sign of weakness. Something that wouldn't take long; both Koh and Samui were already slowing down.

Cracking a smile Hiruzen saw that Haru was going to finish this battle. "Now, Raikage-dono and Tsuchikage-dono, it seems like this battle will end before sunset."

* * *

><p>Koh had been wasting his chakra on creating clones for his entire fight with Samui. She had somehow managed to defeat Harry, something he had not thought possible this early in the fight, it had put him in a disadvantage. He had hoped that Harry and Samui would take each other out or at least wound each other enough for Koh to end this quickly.<p>

That hope had been crushed when Harry had fallen to his knees and Samui had focused entirely on him. She was fast, too fast to keep up with in a hand to hand fight. So he had created dozens of Mizu bunshin. They would keep Samui busy enough for Koh to think of something.

His bugs couldn't get close to Samui for her chakra seemed to electrocute them almost instantly. He had tried trapping her in ninja wire, but she had cut through it without as much as a thought.

In other words; he was just waiting for her to stop her current jutsu.

* * *

><p>Harry was using his chakra to manipulate the water. He wouldn't need a lot of chakra to change all this water into water clones. The water was already accustomed to his chakra when he had 'created' it, giving it a shape and purpose was a piece of cake after that.<p>

Spreading out his chakra the water started to illuminate. Slowly his chakra had taken hold of the entire body of water and then he forced his will through it after going through the hand seals that were required for this jutsu.

In an instant the water that had filled up half of the arena turned into water clones of Harry, hundreds upon hundreds of clones. Koh and Samui, both caught off guard by the disappearance of the huge mass of water that they were previously standing on fell down into the clutches of the clones.

They both tried to fight them off but there were simply too many of them. Most of the clones evaporated after coming in touch with Samui but the girl lost chakra each time she destroyed one. It did not take long before Samui was drained of her chakra and became defenseless. A dozen clones were holding her in place, making sure she was unable to move.

Koh on the other hand had his bugs fighting the clones but even he could not focus on the dozens of clones that were trying to knock him out long enough to destroy all clones. Koh managed to destroy a total of thirty-two clones before one of the clones managed to knock him out with a single hit on the back of his head.

Breathing heavily and sweating profusely Harry deactivated his sharingan, he was tired. Creating all those clones had been taxing on him. Harry walked towards Samui, the girl hadn't lost consciousness unlike his own teammate and she hadn't given up yet.

It took Harry, who was walking as if he was dead on his feet, a whole minute before he reached Samui. Most of his clones had dispersed leaving behind small puddles of water in the mud. "Do you give up Samui?" Harry asked, plastering a determined look on his face and folding his arms over each other.

Samui looked at Harry with eyes that were ablaze. Harry was sure that if she even had a handful of chakra left she would have used it to fight him, but she was drained completely. His clones had overwhelmed her and there was nothing she could do now but admit defeat and hope she had showed off enough skill for her to be promoted anyway.

Samui's eyes started to moisten as she realized just how thoroughly she had been beaten in less than one minute. "I.. I.." Samui coughed up some blood, she tried to move her arm to place her hand in front of her mouth but the clones restrained her completely. Harry awaited her answer.

"I yield." She said with as much pride as she could muster.

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><p>Naruto had managed to sit through Harry's story without even moving an inch. His eyes were glistering with joy. His best friend had won the chuunin exams! How incredible was that? And not only had Harry won the chuunin exam he had treated Naruto to ramen. Yes Harry was indeed the best friend anyone could ever wish for.<p>

"That was awesome Harry!" Naruto took his seventh bowl in his hands and slurped the ramen out of it. Miso ramen was his favorite kind of ramen, but that was beside the point. "So you are a chuunin now? What does that mean?" he asked before putting the bowl back on the counter.

"It means I will get paid more for my missions, and that means we can eat at Ichiraku's more often! Great right?"

Naruto grinned at hearing that. "That's awesome Harry."

"Yeah, I guess it is." Harry tried to keep up an excited appearance for Naruto's sake but Harry's mind was somewhere else. He couldn't stop thinking about Sasuke.

It had been a few weeks since he had last seen his big brother Sasuke, he had missed him. They had parted on terms Harry wasn't sure how to label. They had talked about that day and Harry had confessed to a lot of things and he had managed to suppress some sort of second identity in Sasuke by locking it away through legilimency but Harry was not sure how Sasuke would react.

He had left almost directly after telling Sasuke; Sasuke had been alone at home ever since. Little Sasuke had a lot of time to make up his mind about me and Itachi, but Sasuke is good at holding a grudge. Far too good.

"Uhmm, Harry. Are you alright?" Naruto asked waving his hand before Harry's eyes.

Harry shook his head to clear it of all thoughts about Sasuke. "Oh, sorry. Yes I am, was just thinking. It is getting late and I haven't seen Sasuke yet so I am going to head home all right?"

Naruto gave him a thoughtful look but nodded and said goodbye.

Five minutes later Harry was walking in the Uchiha district. There was someone standing on the corner, someone Harry recognized. Those bandages and cane only belonged to one man. Danzo.

Harry kept his pace as he walked towards the old man. Well, relatively old anyways. There were not many people Harry thought of as old after he had reached the age of twenty decades but that didn't matter.

"Hello Danzo." Harry said. At one point Harry had hated this man with every fiber in his being but now he felt as if this was actually a good man who just needed some 'Harry Potter truth' knocked into him.

"Hello, Uchiha." Danzo said looking Harry in the eyes. "I've heard about your promotion, let me congratulate you on that."

"Thank you, Danzo." Harry suspected that Danzo had another reason to visit Harry like this other than congratulating him for becoming chuunin.

Danzo walked over to the bench next to him and sat down, motioning for Harry to do the same. As Harry sat down Danzo looked at him intently. "There is a new opening in the interrogation squad…"

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. Danzo was here to talk about that? "They are going to ask if you would be willing to fill that spot." Danzo's lips had an upward curve to them as he closed his mouth.

"The interrogation squad? Why are you telling me this?" Harry asked wondering where this would lead to. The interrogation squad lead by Ibiki was well known and feared through Konoha, it had been renamed into the T&I squad a few years ago, torture and interrogation squad. It consisted of two branches, which were overlapping but quite distinctive nonetheless, but why would Danzo tell Harry about something like that?

"Because I am here to tell you not to decline their offer."

"Why?"

"Certain positions in Konoha look good on a resume. Being a member of the interrogation squad is one of those positions." Danzo tightened his grip on his walking cane. "In the political system of Konoha, appearances mean a lot. I am sure you understand what I am trying to say Uchiha."

Being a member of the torture and interrogation squad was something Harry had only fleetly thought of when he still went to the ninja academy. Members of the squad didn't have to leave the village to go on missions, which was a plus and they also made a lot of money to ensure their loyalty but the downside was that it was psychologically very taxing and required an additional study in interrogation and psychology, which Harry honestly did not need. His legilimency was capable of reading a person's mind no matter how unwilling someone was to let him enter, he had yet to encounter a mind that was guarded well enough for him not to see it. And after having spent centuries with a lot of different people Harry was sure he knew humans well enough from the inside and out.

Danzo was right though, to become Hokage one needed to have an impressive resume, everything counted. Harry was sure that Hiruzen would step down within ten years; he was getting old after all; and if Harry could show that he was a truly capable ninja in those ten years it didn't matter that he was young. Not only that, but every Jounin would eventually have to do an three month internship in the T&I, it would surely help him advance in ranks faster.

"Would it mean I have to leave my current team?" Harry asked, his mind already made up.

"No, it is a part-time duty. You're only called upon when needed. And in times of peace, like these times are. T&I doesn't have a lot of.. Clients." Danzo stood up. "I have a meeting with the council in two minutes; I assume you will make the right decision Uchiha. I am looking forward to seeing your application on the council's desk in three days."

Harry flashed the man a smile and nodded. Danzo was helping him, helping him become the Hokage one day. It felt good to have a man like that supporting you.

As Danzo disappeared from sight after walking around the corner Harry continued his way home. Within seconds Sasuke was back on his mind. How would he react to Harry's coming back. Harry hoped for the best, preparing for the worst.

A few minutes later Harry stood at the front door, he could hear that Sasuke was inside, after all the toilet didn't flush itself. Opening the door Harry was met with a sight that had baffled him.

Sasuke was walking barefooted, a bag of chips in his left hand and a can of soda in his right. Sasuke looked like he had taken the day off. That was something Sasuke hadn't done since the death of their parents.

"Hi Harry." Sasuke said lazily. "Welcome back."

Harry blinked. It took his brain a full five seconds to process the scene. "Yeah, uhmm thanks."

Sitting down on the couch, Sasuke looked at Harry with a lazy grin. "Well, sit down and tell me exactly what happened."

Harry smiled back and before he even sat down next to Sasuke had started to tell him the story of his chuunin exams, glad that there were no ill feelings between him and Sasuke.

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><p><strong>AN2<strong>:

I wonder how many of you have actually forgotten about this story and had to read back a bit to remember what happened earlier. As I've said in my fist AN, this chapter marks the end of part one. Part one was all about setting up the rules for this story, the mood, themes and characters.

Part two will tell the story of Harry finding his place in Konoha; his bonds will tighten with the people he'll work with. We will go into the backstory of some of the other characters and it will build up to an escalation of problems that were created in part one, no one has plot armor in the second act of this story and sadly we will have to say goodbye to a few people eventually.

With part one done, and part two underway we will have three more parts, which means this story is going to be long, but hopefully I will give enough twists to keep you all entertained.

I've made the poll results public; but I know that most of you probably won't check it so here they are. And see; I really do listen to you. Harry won.

**90** Harry

**8** Koh

**4** Samui

which means that 102 individuals have participated. Hopefully next chapter won't take this long to write; but I cannot promise anything. Life is a bit crazy right now, school year is ending and I still have a shitload to do. OH and please leave behind a review; I really like reviews.

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><p>Also for those who are interested, some stats:<p>

as of ninth of june: 124,050 words.  
>24 chapters.<br>545 reviews.  
>264.713 hits.<br>99 C2's.  
>829 Favs.<br>893 Alerts.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped making this story reach such numbers.


	26. Torture, Dinner, Interrogation and moldy

**AN:Hello dear readers; I actually have a very good reason for taking so long with this chapter… My computer has been the victim of several Trojan viruses (windows live security and a police virus...) that utterly destroyed all my files and hard disk. I had written seven thousand words of this chapter without a backup and had to rewrite everything from memory; that was not the worst thing though; I had my plot-outline on my computer with all my notes on the characters and what they would do and how that would have its impact on the naruto world; it's all gone. I admit to having shed tears of frustration when I realized that hours upon hours of work had been thrown out of the window as if it meant nothing.**

**So I am sorry for this chapter; the writing is not as good the second time around but I honestly just wanted to get it done.**

**So having shared that; I give you this chapter.**

**Chapter 25: Torture, Dinner, Interrogation and moldy places.**

She was sitting in a dark room, when the lights turned on the white walls would blind her momentarily; the lights were turned on twenty times a day for two minutes. It was torture.

She had been stuck in this room for longer than she could remember; there were months of isolation only broken by days where she was allowed no solitude. It had been so long that 'sun' and 'sky' had almost become foreign concepts to her. Sometimes in her dreams the ceiling she spent most of her time staring at turned cerulean blue while soft white spots floated by like speckles of dust. There had been a time when she would've thought of them as clouds, but that had been a long time ago; too long ago.

When she had been captured- when had she been captured?... the memories were vague at best. The only thing she could remember as easily as she could remember her name was the secret, the secret that she would never divulge to anyone, no matter what horrors they would unleash on her, no matter who invaded her mind, never would she give _that_ up.

Never.

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><p>Perspiration was one of the world's most ingenious inventions. Most mammals were able to use their sweat glands to release a fluid consisting mostly of water and while every sweat drop had its own glorious lifespan some were blessed with eternity. The sweat drop that had just formed on Sasuke's brow was sadly not one of those drops that would be etched into eternity because before it had fully formed it had been brutally wiped away by a towel.<p>

The towel in question was held by Sasuke, a boy that had been born into the Uchiha clan almost eleven years ago and that would most likely end up graduating within a few months with the best grades of his entire class. None of that mattered at the moment though, because at the moment he was showering. The towel in Sasuke's hand was soon put over the railing so Sasuke's hands were free to turn on the water. Before long the entire room was steaming as hot water poured out of the faucet.

Grabbing the shampoo bottle Sasuke closed his eyes to enjoy the relaxing waves of water hitting his skin. He always enjoyed showering, the warmer the water the better the experience. His skin was already turning red as the shower curtain opened. "What took you so long, Harry?" Sasuke asked his little brother.

Harry looked up to Sasuke's face. "I had trouble getting a towel of the line. I'm telling you; you shouldn't hang them up so high, I can't reach them with these." Harry flapped his arms around in annoyance. "Well I could reach it but I accidentally may have pulled the entire line down so everything is dirty again…"

Sasuke wasn't looking at Harry anymore but he knew that his little brother probably had a very apologetic look on his face by now, ready to force Sasuke to forgive him for the trouble he had caused. Sasuke just sighed and opened the bottle of shampoo while pulling Harry closer to him. Harry let out a surprised sound as the warm water made way for the cold shampoo.

Sasuke knew Harry had his eyes closed by now; for some reason Harry had always been very scared of getting shampoo in his eyes. It was a silly thing to be afraid of but Harry had little quirks like that, it was why Sasuke was extra careful when washing Harry's hair.

"You know, I am not going to do the laundry again, you can do it yourself this time." Sasuke said almost indifferently even as Harry let out a moan of displeasure. "And don't try to plead your Way out of it; if you're big enough to be a chuunin you are big enough to do the laundry!" Sasuke said before Harry even had the time to say anything of the sort.

"Okay, Sasuke, I'll do the laundry…" Harry let his head relax in Sasuke's hands. "It's not like I have anything else to do today; Kakashi-sensei has given us week off."

"Didn't you have to write your letter to the council about that job at the T&I?" Sasuke said. Harry had told him yesterday that a man, Ibiki, had come by and invited him to join the T&I ranks. Sasuke guessed that because of Harry's age a lot of women would probably share their information as soon as he put on his puppy-eyes. Not even their mom had been able to resist those pleading eyes. It was weird though; his little brother was still so young, younger than even Sasuke himself and yet he had not only managed to become a genin at the fickle age of four but he had also left the academy with record shattering results. Not that achieving that was enough for Harry; no Harry had- within two years, managed to become a chuunin.

It filled Sasuke with pride that his little brother was such a strong boy but it also bothered him. Wasn't he supposed to be the bigger and stronger brother like Itachi had been for him? Wasn't Sasuke Harry's obstacle to overcome?

It seemed like fate had played a joke on Sasuke in that regard; not that it really mattered. He was still an, dare he say it- awesome Uchiha. He was top of his class and would most likely graduate top of his class. But everyone knew that out of the three Uchiha brothers; he was the weakest.

Physically shaking the thoughts away Sasuke focused on the real world again and heard that Harry was talking to him. "-ed. I hopefully receive the confirmation tomorrow after the council has accepted my application."

"I am sure they will; you were asked right? It would be weird if they asked you to join them yet not let you into the program." Sasuke was working on getting all the shampoo out of Harry's hair. Succeeding in his effort of getting rid of the remaining soap Sasuke grabbed the washing mitt and after pouring some soap onto it started to wash Harry.

It was one of the perks of having a brother Sasuke guessed. Bathing together after training in the early morning was both relaxing and practical. Uchiha's had a strict bathing ritual which required them to not only clean their entire body with soap but also had them scrub themselves after said cleaning. Scrubbing your own back was always something that Sasuke thought was too much effort on your own; there just were certain places that you couldn't reach.

"Yeah that would be weird… But we are talking about the council here. The same people that let us, two children, live together without caretakers." Harry said after Sasuke was done with cleaning him. Sasuke put away the washing mitt he had used on Harry and gave Harry the shampoo so he could wash him.

Sasuke closed his eyes as the cold fluid dripped out of the bottle and onto his head, Harry always used a lot of shampoo, saying that with all that hair on Sasuke's head he needed a river of shampoo to clean it. It was silly of course; but that was Harry's most redeemable quality. His silly quirks.

"I never quite understood why they didn't place us in some orphanage, you know?" Sasuke wiped away some shampoo that was dangerously close to his eyes. "But I don't really mind; I like that we are on our own. No adults to tell us what to do." Sasuke flashed a grin but because his face was down Harry didn't see it.

After five more minutes they both walked out of the shower. Sasuke went to the academy while Harry was going to the Torture and Interrogation headquarters.

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><p>The village of Konoha had been built in rings; in the heart of the village one would find the market filled to the brim with the scent of fish, vegetables that smelled of earth and fruit that attracted flies by the dozens. The Marketplace was colorful and the thousands of people that walked in the streets, created by the stands where people traded everything from animals to flowers for money, were from all over the land: hundreds of farmers and other merchants knew their way to the largest market in the land of fire.<p>

The heart of Konoha was where the first Hokage had come often when he was a child; it was for that reason that Konoha was built around it. Around the market there was the first ring which consisted of the most beautifully decorated houses that had been turned into hotels with rooftops decorated in an abundance of color, the first ring gradually turned into the second ring where the commoners of Konoha lived. The commoners, or villagers as they were often called by the shinobi that lived in the third and fourth ring, knew that so long as they lived in Konoha they were safe because they knew for certain that the hokage and his shinobi would lay down their lives to protect them.

They knew that Konoha's shinobi forces were feared throughout the elemental nations, though they didn't know to what extent they were feared. When Konoha's walls were erected from the earth the founding shinobi clans were quick to create certain institutions. One of the most feared was the Torture and Interrogation institution, back then it had been called the Information Corps, but as with most institutions that lasted a long time it changed with the times.

Currently Konoha housed a total of two hundred twenty-one persons of interest. Most of these were shinobi that had been apprehended during missions and were brought in for questioning, which was done exclusively by the Torture and Interrogation department that was housed in the fifth ring; at least its visible entrance was. While the T&I Headquarters was easily accessible the rest of it was not. The main public entrance to the T&I HQ had two large doors and a nice wooden plate above it that read "Konoha's Torture and Interrogation" If one were to open the doors, walk through the main hall and ignore the person sitting behind the desk they would be able to enter the entirety of Konoha's T&I department.

First there would be the option between seventy-two identical doors, but if, per chance, one would chose the thirtieth door on the left side of the hall they would be greeted by a wooden stairway with one hundred and three steps. If they would walk all the way down there would be another door, this one made of iron adorned with small black kanji; the door would be easy to open up and would lead into a circular room with seven identical doors excluding the one just entered through. Each door was made of black onyx and was polished so well that you could see your own reflection in it.

The first doors on both the left and right would open up only to release a toxic nerve gas that once inhaled would leave the victim in a catatonic state.

Opening the door right in front wouldn't be the smartest choice either, for it would collapse the ceiling after sealing all the doors shut; it would mean a certain, painful death.

Both doors next to that door would release a hail of poisoned senbon. The two doors next to those could either bring one to another room or would alert the hokage of a presence.

Choosing the correct door would lead to another room. One shrouded in darkness which obscured not only the mattress and white walls but also the habitant of that room: a woman whose greasy hair framed her ghoulish face.

That woman was the first person ever to be placed in the confinement of Konoha; but she had never spoken, never revealed her secrets. Not even in the face of a Yamanaka had she given in and released the restraints on her mind; her secret would die with her, not that it would be long before that happened. she could feel it in her bones; death was on her doorstep, and he would not knock before coming in.

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><p>Standing in front of the help desk at the T&amp;I headquarters Harry once more was made painfully aware of his short stature. "Hello, sir. I was supposed to meet with Miss Shorai, you wouldn't happen to know where I can find her, now would you?" Harry asked, standing on his toes so that he could see the man behind the desk.<p>

The man, looked down towards Harry with a stern face and sighed "I am sorry, you'll have to make a new appointment, Miss Shorai is currently in an interview with a client… I will send you a message bird with available dates once Miss Shorai is done with her interview and gives me access to her agenda." The man hadn't uttered his last words before he returned to his own work, apparently that included drawing circles on a piece of paper.

Harry nodded in affirmation and decided to use his now free-time the best way he knew how: visiting his teammates.

Harry first went to Yuugi, even though she was busy training her Jyuuken in the family dojo she made time for Harry when he arrived, they talked for almost an hour and a half, under the enjoyment of a cup of tea, about their recent change in status. They were no longer genin anymore, they were chuunin and while it didn't seem to affect them in their personal lives they would get a raise in salary. It was something neither of them really needed, their bank accounts were filled to the brim with their family's money, but it still felt nice to earn their own money.

Before taking his last sip of the delightful strawberry tea Yuugi had made him Harry decided to tell Yuugi something that had been bothering him for a while now. "Don't you think it is weird that Kakashi-sensei is still our team leader even though all three of us have graduated?"

Yuugi, in her ever aristocratic way raised her left eyebrow. "There is nothing uncommon about that, Harry. It is common practice for jounin instructors to stay with their teams for one or two more missions after the graduation of the entire team to observe the team dynamic."

Harry, feeling somewhat chastised put the palm of his hand against the side of his forehead. "Of course! We still haven't had our assessments to team leading… I guess that explains it." Harry should have thought of that before asking Yuugi his question. "I can't believe I forgot all about those."

"Well, it is not like we have really discussed them before, it always seemed to be so far away into the future, but we are chuunin now and that means we are allowed to lead our own team in a three man cell." Yuugi fidgeted with her hand, which was something she rarely did, it made Harry wonder what was on her mind.

"Yeah, leading our own three men cell. It is quite the responsibility. I remember our teachers in the academy drilling us about the three rules to follow when leading a team." Standing up Harry mimicked the stance of Menumi Mei, even going as far as to mimic her tone of voice. "When leading all one has to do is but a simple three things; you must be able to anticipate the dangers that lay ahead. You must be willing to admit defeat and you must know when to sacrifice!"

Yuugi was shaking her head "I said it before and I'll say it again; those three rules are useless, that woman didn't know what she was talking about."

"She had a point though-"Harry tried to say before he was cut off by a stream of words.

"No she didn't! The only rule a leader of a team must follow is the rule that there are no rules! Seriously, Harry, you should have listened more intently to Iruka-sensei, he was far more knowledgeable." Yuugi's eyes were slowly narrowing. "But then again, it doesn't really matter whose rules you follow. Being a team captain is a huge responsibility."

"Yeah, I guess it is." Harry sat down again "I really want to be the team leader of our team though. It would look great on my resume…" Harry stifled a laugh, when had he become so career driven? It must have been the Slytherin in him; the hat had always said he would've done great in Slytherin.

Yuugi's eyes were almost slits now and as she spoke her tone was sharper and more clipped than usual "My family would… I want to be team leader. I believe I am the one most qualified for the position."

Harry wasn't surprised by Yuugi's statement, however the way she didn't tell him why she really wanted to become team captain saddened him. Didn't she know that she was as close to him as family? She was one of his friends and it felt like a slap in his face that she didn't tell him the real reason for her ambition. Why didn't she admit to him that her family wanted her to become team leader? It was typical of Yuugi though, to take such expectations as if it was a law. "You know Yuugi, I think you'd make a great team leader."

Yuugi's face betrayed her surprise "You do? I mean of course you do! I would be great as a team leader. It would be an honorable position for a Hyuuga such as myself." By the end of her sentence her chest looked as if it had been inflated and her face looked superior once more.

"Yeah, you'd do wonderful. Too bad you have me on your team." Harry said smiling slyly. "For it is I! Uchiha Haru, who will become team leader! How could I not with my devilish, handsome smile and authoritative yet inspiring voice?"

Yuugi smacked Harry on the head "Brat!"

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><p>With a new addition to his ever growing bruise collection Harry was glad that his visit with Koh had been less violent. Now that all three of them were chuunin it wouldn't be long before they had to say goodbye to their second Jounin-instructor, Hatake Kakashi.<p>

The man had taught him a lot, he had taught him how to use his sharingan in ways he had not used it ever before. The sharingan had many abilities, including hypnotization. To be true it felt as if you were drowning in your own thoughts when hypnotizing someone with your sharingan, you could feel your eyes dragging someone inside your mind, it felt almost like legilimency, only instead of pushing into someone's mind you're were pulling someone into yours. He was thankful that Kakashi had taught him that.

The young man was a true genius, not only had he been able to create the feared Chidori and Raikiri but he had also mastered the sharingan up to the point Harry doubted that even he or Itachi were able to stand on even ground with, without using Mangekyou.

Harry could feel his chakra swirl inside of him; it was becoming a larger and vaster energy reservoir within him. It seemed that balancing out his mental and physical chakra had done wonders for him. Remembering back when he had first used jutsu he had wasted so much chakra, even though he was balancing his chakra pretty evenly, the more physical chakra he attained the less his mental chakra had to use to compensate. His chakra had gained at least a good ten percent from when he had graduated two years ago. If this growth would keep going… Harry shuddered thinking about how much power he would be walking around with. His magic had never felt that way, his magic had never felt like it was a time bomb ready to go off. But his chakra did, his chakra was a raging fire ready to consume all in its path.

Yes, his chakra was a dangerous thing, but it was also a wonderful thing: he had the ability to create life with it, to create entire forests. The moment he found out he had that ability, it had felt so good. To know that he was able not to just take life but also to create it.

It had taken a lot of trial and error to discover just how to use his chakra to access the Mokuton aspect of it. Harry was sure there were still a lot of things about his current body and chakra that he still was not aware of. Thinking back to when he had met the real Uchiha Haru, the one that should've died before the Senju and Uchiha genes truly merged together and gave life to another experiment of Orochimaru.

Orochimaru; that man was dangerous. He had his hands in so many things. He had killed, no he had slaughtered Rin, he had somehow put some sort of horcrux into poor little Sasuke; the other entity in Sasuke, the one Sasuke had dubbed as 'the real me' was nothing more than a sliver of Orochimaru's chakra that grew and fed on Sasuke. It would take the small boy over like the parasite it was. Harry had halted that process though, through legilimency he had put walls of chakra that the parasite would have to break through before he could access Sasuke's psyche once again, something Harry was sure of was impossible unless it had help from the outside.

But Sasuke was under his watchful eyes now, no more would that snake hurt the ones he loved. He would make sure of that. As dark thoughts started to cloud Harry's mind, about how he was going to make sure Orochimaru would never hurt anyone ever again, Harry made his way to one of the training grounds: he needed to release some tension.

The wooden log that was currently being punched by a young Uchiha was slowly but surely starting to lose more and more splinters. Not that the young Uchiha cared about that; the logs were placed at this specific training field for that reason.

Punch after punch and the log lost more and more slivers of wood until the moment came that it could no longer take the brutal punishment and broke in two, the top part of the log flew high into the air before landing with a soft thud on the grass a few feet away. The young Uchiha was panting 'This is so much more satisfying than working on my occlumency barriers.' Harry untied the bandages he had wrapped around his wrists and hands before he reached for a flask of water.

Sliding down and sitting against the broken wooden log, Harry opened the flask and gladly welcomed the ice cold water that came out of it.

Harry heard footsteps behind him so he put his flask away and stood up to greet the person that had walked up to him.

"Ah there you are Uchiha-san." The young man said. The man wore a simple flak jacket with a blue shirt and grey pants, from the looks of it he was a messenger.

"Hello, sir." Harry greeted the messenger-nin.

The messenger reached inside his flak jacket and procured a scroll, "Ah, here it is. Good day." The young man left as fast as he had come, leaving Harry behind with the scroll.

'This must be from the Torture and Interrogation, though it is much sooner than I had expected.' Harry unsealed the scroll and rolled it out.

"Uchiha Haru,

Miss Shorai was killed in action earlier this afternoon, we are sorry to have to cancel your appointment with her. It has been rescheduled to our earliest convenience.

Your new appointment shall be with Anko Mitarashi tomorrow morning at half past eight.

Kind regards,

Fourth assistant of Head of Torture and Interrogation,

Temnu Kai"

* * *

><p>The next morning Harry was walking through the doors of the T&amp;I department once more, he noticed how they had redecorated, the smell of newly painted walls couldn't escape his nose. Perhaps the death of Miss Shorai had been the reason they had to repaint the walls?<p>

Did she die a bloody death? Harry shuddered as mental images and his imagination got the better of him.

Harry wondered how the woman had died, wasn't one of the perks of working in the T&I department that you were working under relatively safe conditions?

Harry walked through the empty hall directly towards the desk, noticing that this time it wasn't a man that was sitting behind it but a woman. He had to look twice, but he knew the woman who was sitting behind that desk. It was surprising to see one of his academy teachers sitting behind the torture and interrogation main desk… He hadn't known Menumi Mei that well, but she had never looked like someone who would willingly do paper work.

Mei was going through a stack of paper, apparently looking for a specific form, as Harry stood in front of her desk "Good morni-" Harry started but was cut off by Menumi Mei's clipped voice.

"Wait a minute, just need to find this.. no .. no.. Ah there it is!" she said, placing the paper on top of another stack of paper. "Now that that's done, how may I help YOU!" Menumi yelled her last word in shock, falling back in her chair that decided not to support her weight anymore causing her to bang her head against the wall behind her.

Harry hurried himself to her; she had banged her head quite hard, and if the blood on the wall was anything to go by, she had probably given herself a concussion or worse.

Kneeling beside her, Harry channeled chakra into his hands; so far his day wasn't going the way he had expected it to go. Considering this was just the start of it Harry shuddered thinking about how the rest of his day would be.

As the head wound closed, Menumi Mei became conscious once more. "Please don't move, Menumi-sensei, there might be more damage to your neck or spine, just give me a minute to check it over." Harry's glowing hands were moving slowly following the track of her spinal cord. Menumi Mei had a crazed look as she watched Harry with widened eyes.

"Ah, you're lucky! Aside from very little bruising to the back of your head it seems that everything is all right." Harry smiled carefully at Menumi Mei, who still looked like she wanted to hide in a dark corner for the rest of her life.

"Uhmm, yeah, right. Thank you." She said as if Harry was pointing a wand, scratch that, a kunai at her. "So, what can I do for you…?"

"I have an appointment with Mitarashi Anko, could you let her know I am here?"

"Sure…" Menumi Mei turned around; mumbling to herself, Harry could only hear bits and pieces but was sure from the words he heard that she still had issues with children, green eyed-demon Uchiha children in particular. She pressed a button on the wall behind her and within a minute a scarcely dressed woman walked out of one of the many doors into the hall.

"Ah, there you are! You're late kid." Anko said with a scowl on her face.

"I'm sorry about that, Menumi-sensei fell of her chair so I helped her out. It took a while to make sure her spine wasn't damaged." Harry's hands were simultaneously reaching for his hair as he combed through it with his fingers.

"Oh, that so?" Anko looked at Menumi Mei, who was nodding as if her life depended on it.

"Yes! So you can take him away from here with you. Right?" Menumi's eyes were still focused on Harry, afraid that he would attack her any second now.

"Sure, come with me kid." Anko turned around, a smile on her face as she heard Menumi sigh in relief.

Harry followed Anko, as the door closed behind them she started to laugh out loud. "What a pathetic little bitch; can't even safely sit on her chair!"

Harry quirked his eyebrow at the colorful language Anko was using; was that the norm around here, or was Anko a special case? "I am guessing she was quite shocked to see me here, of all places."

Anko opened the door to her office, though office might not be the right word for it, it looked more like a junkyard. There were plastic bags all over the floor and on her desk laid a pile of used chopsticks, the rubbish bin was filled with molded, unfinished dango sticks. The smell of it all, combined with the pictures of mutilated corpses on the walls made the office quite unpleasant.

"Meh, if you can scare little Menumi out of her wits than you'll fit right in with us kiddo." Anko somehow procured three dango sticks and started eating while talking. "So today you'll be…"

Two and a half hours later Harry wasn't sure if he still wanted to be in the Torture and Interrogation department. Anko had talked for one hundred and fifty minutes nonstop, she had started telling him about what he would do today and that he would follow a crash course in psychology because they needed him to be ready to work within a week, so he'd better be prepared for some serious studying.

Then she started talking about her experiences in the interrogation department and while that wasn't that bad, Harry wondered if the woman was entirely sane after she started to smile while telling him about her torture-sessions with a hidden grass ninja that she had almost killed with a marshmallow. Yes, Harry doubted her sanity very much.

"So, I will have to follow a crash course in psychology and then I'll be able to start working in the Interrogation department?" Harry asked, hoping that Anko would answer him in a short and decisive yes or no, he wasn't sure if he could handle anymore torture talks without retreating behind his occlumency walls.

"Yeah, you were lucky, the old geezer vouched for your skills in interrogation, said you were a walking lie-detector and that you wouldn't need to follow the whole tract." Anko opened one of the drawers in her desk. "Ah, look here, it's your schedule for the next week. You'll have a whole week of learning before you'll start working as my assistant for a month! You excited yet, shrimp?"

"You have no idea." Harry said, hoping this conversation was over.

"You know, I am sure that you'll be really good at this job kiddo, those eyes of yours will make the ladies talk before you can even blink!" Anko gave Harry his schedule before standing up and opening the door. "Now get out of here and I'll see you sometime next week. Oh and tell Menumi I said hi when you see her on your way out." Anko's smile was quite scary as she probably envisioned Menumi going into another episode again.

"Sure, see you next week ma'am." Harry walked as fast as he could without appearing to run, the fresh air he inhaled once he was outside felt cleansing, he would have to avoid that office: it was a serious health problem waiting to happen. If the mold wouldn't kill him, Anko just might if she got bored.

* * *

><p>Harry's next week was filled with eight hour school days and learning about things like intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivators, water-boarding (which Harry knew to be more of a torture technique than an interrogation technique) and how to fake sympathy. Harry wondered if all psychology courses in Konoha were this subpar. It wasn't really in depth; though the final day they went over interrogation techniques that actually sounded useful.<p>

The professor talked about different approaches to get a confession out of someone and how each method had their own kind of criminal, for example; for the truly hardened and toughen upped criminal or shinobi you needed to use more physical evidence or use the hypothetical approach: in which you asked the offending party what he would have done, even when he hadn't done it, to achieve the results.

Though in the end it would all be useless to Harry, his legilimency would prove to be infallible. And if his legilimency wouldn't work for some weird reason, his sharingan would provide enough methods of making someone give up information. There was a reason the Uchiha had fulfilled the role of the police in Konoha, even though that reason escaped Harry for the moment… Because his mind was currently consumed by the fine art of grocery shopping.

Harry had invited Naruto over for dinner, he was going to make a delicious traditional European meal, something that neither Naruto nor Sasuke had ever had. It seemed that for all the great things this new world had like fresh unpolluted air, silence, and wild life, it missed the finer things such as treacle tart. But Harry was planning on introducing the divine taste of treacle tart to this world. He would start with Naruto and Sasuke, then before anyone would suspect it, treacle tart would take over the elemental nations!

Treacle tart world domination aside, Harry's head was filled with old recipes he wanted to use. He wanted to make a French potato-soup with croutons and freshly harvested potatoes and parsley. Though he hadn't had any luck with finding parsley in Konoha before he had stumbled upon it earlier today when he walked past the Yamanaka's flower shop. It had been what inspired Harry into this whole cooking European food for the two.

_Europe_…

In the later days of Harry's wizarding life Europe, the continent had been merged together to form one super power in the world, it was something that the wizarding world had long seen coming. The muggles had been tightening the bonds between countries for a few hundred years by then and after the many civil wars in the twenty second century it had been all the governments could do to keep the countries from destroying themselves. It had been dark times: the wizarding world had been the reason for the civil wars. A new dark lord had risen not long after Harry had retreated from the public eye. The man, Sven Gorginov, had been a demon in his own right. He had used some new form of the unforgiveable imperious curse to enslave dozens of state leaders; Harry hadn't heard about all the turmoil until seventeen years into the civil wars, two days later Sven Gorginov was found dead by his followers.

Harry hadn't shown his face to the magical community long time by then, yet they found traces of his magic at the scene of Sven Gorginovs dead body. Rumors about an old war hero started to arise. It didn't take long before whispers we're also heard throughout the underground scene, about a boy with green eyes, black hair and a lightning shaped scar that had supposedly defeated Sven with nothing more than a flick of his wrist.

Though the truth was not as straightforward as that: it wasn't as easy as just making a movement with his wrist, it had been a battle for supremacy that neither had been willing to lose. Sven Gorginov lost simply because Harry was by far the more stubborn one.

He shook his head, hating how thinking about something as simple as the European cuisine brought those memories to the fore.

Those days didn't really matter now, at least not really. He had learned a lot in his previous life, more than perhaps he was even conscious of. But it didn't matter because he had a new life now, a new family. A little bigger brother that he could care for, a future, a natural ending.

Those days didn't matter except for the lessons he had learned; the mistakes he had made back then, the mistakes he would now never make again. Like forgetting to add the gold syrup to the treacle tart, he would never make that mistake again.

* * *

><p>Four hours later Harry could be found eating treacle tart at the round table in the middle of the dining room. Harry was not the only citizen of Konoha enjoying the delicious desert.<p>

"This," Naruto started with his mouth full "is really good Harry! Where did you learn to cook like that?"

Sasuke flinched as treacle tart crumbles were falling from Naruto's mouth on the floor he had cleaned just that afternoon. "Brother is a great cook, he makes weird dishes but they always taste great. He once made soup out of pumpkin, with juice to match!" Sasuke told the blonde boy.

"Thanks." Harry said after swallowing his last piece of treacle tart "I do try my best. Talking about trying your best: how are you two doing at the academy?" Harry asked.

Naruto swallowed his treacle tart with a big sound "I am doing awesome! Last week Iruka-sensei took us to the river .. uhmm near the uhmm waterfall"

Sasuke grunted "Tohai River"

"Yes! That one, and we had to use our ninja wire to get from this side all the way to that side and I used to be really bad at it but Sasuke helped me out."

"We were set up in pairs…" Sasuke said, an annoyed look on his face.

"Yeah, so like we were the fastest out of all the boys in our class, and Kiba tried to distract us so that we would fall into the river but Sasuke used one of his shuriken and threw it at Kiba and Shino's wire making them fall into the river! And Iruka sensei got mad at me because he thought I threw the shuriken." Naruto explained, excitement radiating from his whole posture.

"Ridiculous of course, because Blondie here can't even throw shuriken with one hand while trying to walk over ninja wire and not losing his balance." Sasuke smirked.

"I can too!" Naruto pouted.

"Sure, that's why you fell into the water when you tried the same trick on Shikamaru and Chouji…" Sasuke's eyes were glittering as if he had just won a battle of sorts.

"That's not my fault! That's because you made the wire move!"

"I did not you just fell be-"

"Yes you did!" Naruto said, standing up and pointing at Sasuke. Which caused Sasuke to stand up as well, both boys looking ready to start a brawl right there and then.

"So, you two worked together fairly well?" Harry commentated lightly as if not noticing the two boys' fighting stances.

"Yeah…" Naruto and Sasuke both said, sulking.

"Great, than you two should be able to work together on a little mission I have cooked up for you." Harry grinned as both boys looked at him in amazement.

"Really? You'll give us a real ninja mission? All right!"

"Yes, really, I'd even go as far as calling it an S-rank mission." Sasuke's eyes widened at hearing this, his interest piqued.

"Tell us! Tell us! Please Harry!" Naruto nearly begged of him.

"Harry, spill it out." Sasuke added as Harry remained quiet.

"You see, it is a mission of grave importance, you will need to be strong!" Both boys nodded

"You need to be able to withstand great heat." Sasuke gulped but his face showed he was determined to succeed in whatever mission Harry had for them.

"You can't be afraid to get dirty" Both boys raised their eyebrows.

"Your mission will" Both boys leaned forward "be" Naruto's eyes widened to comical extent "a" Sasuke heart was racing "sink-ranked mission." Both boys looked at Harry in horror. "You shall do the dishes."

Before either boy could voice their disgust Harry disappeared from sight in the oddest fashion: a soft pop.

"So…" Naruto said "I'll dry?"

Sasuke looked up and muttered "My brother is evil."

* * *

><p>That Monday Harry reported to Anko in her office. He had skillfully used his ninja skills in avoiding Menumi, it wouldn't do to have her freak out again. 'Good morning rotten mistress, how are you and your moldy friends doing?' Harry thought as he said "Good morning Anko."<p>

Anko's eyes, which had previously been closed, opened wide as she stared at Harry. "Oh, you."

Harry raised his eyebrow, wondering why he had been placed under the purple haired kunoichi. "Yes, me."

An awkward silence made itself master of the room, neither ninja said anything. Harry was trying not too breathe in the mold while Anko grabbed one of the dango sticks that lie on her desk. Harry watched in utter disgust as Anko ate the dango; he never liked the things.

"Anko?"

"Uchiha?"

"Yes?"

"No, go away, can't you see I am having breakfast?" Anko said childishly. "Seriously, have you got no manners at all?"

Harry shrugged "You wanted me to report in your office when I was ready to start working."

Anko waved at Harry "Yeah, yeah, you don't have to be so serious about this…"

"I am not Sirius… Do I look like I am Sirius to you?"

This time it was Anko who raised her eyebrow.

"It doesn't matter shrimp." Anko rose to her full height and downed her last bite of dango "You're coming with me."

Harry, in his surprise, bit back a remark and followed steadily in Anko's footsteps. "So… what are we doing?"

"We're going to visit the old one." Anko said with a smug look on her face.

"The old one?" Harry asked quizzical "Are we going to visit the Hokage?"

"No shrimp, we're going to visit the old hag." Opening the door to the main Hall, Anko rushed along the doors until she reached the thirtieth door on the left "She will be your initiation."

"Wait. You mean you're going to let me interrogate someone already?"

"It won't be much of an interrogation shrimp." Anko said opening the door to reveal a wooden staircase "You see; for as long as this building has been standing here there has always been one constant, one person of interest that hasn't left this premise."

Harry frowned while following Anko down the stairs. "How is that possible? This building has been here for almost a century."

"That's why she is called the old hag; she killed the last rookie we brought in to interrogate her though." Somehow the shadows on Anko's face made her look incredibly sinister when she spoke next. "I am hoping you will not have to befall the same fate."

Harry gulped, Anko sure knew how to make a boy feel uncomfortable, it made him wonder how a confrontation between her and Naruto would end? Probably with her buying Naruto a bowl of ramen. "What can you tell me about this woman, aside from the fact that she's old."

"Hmm, what to say… She knows a location. The location of something Konoha has been searching for in desperation for decades."

"Then why not just let someone like Yamanaka Inoichi read her mind?" Harry wondered out loud, not expecting an answer from the purple haired kunoichi. He received one anyway.

"Because her mind cannot be entered by their jutsu." Anko said as they reached the end of the stairs and opened the door to show a circular room with seven black doors. "I tried to get her to talk once. I didn't succeed, no one has ever succeeded. And shrimp, time is running out. You might be the last person to get her to talk. Old man Danzo brought you into this department stating you would be able to crack every case open, let's see if his trust in you was as well placed as the council thought it was. Take the second door to the right, I'll wait here, enjoing the screams when she will inevitably skin you alive."

Harry walked past Anko "What is it I need her to reveal the location of?"

Anko smirked "All you need her to tell you is where we can find..."


	27. I'm the end

**AN: Forgot to thank my awesome beta readers last chapter, so let me rectify that this time: A huge thank you goes out to both Lexandria and C.J.C of DLP.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 26: I'm the end<strong>

Anko smirked, "All you need her to tell you is where we can find the body of her grandmother." Opening the door she shoved Harry inside. "Good luck, brat."

As Harry was pushed through the doorway light made way for darkness and all Harry could see were two dull, purple-grey eyes reflecting the little light that was present in the room.

"Another Uchiha comes before me." a hoarse voice whispered, a thud could be heard as the lights were turned on. The dark room illuminated at once. Eye-lids shielded the sensitive eyes as a pained look came over the woman's face.

The face looked old, weather-beaten. There were lines intertwining with folds and creases. White skin with black bags under her eyes. Shriveled lips and cheekbones sticking out. Her chin was hardly there as it looked almost as if it was one with her neck. Flabs of skin with dark spots were only recognizable as such because Harry knew it was supposed to be a human sitting there and not something else.

Thin lips parted and the hoarse voice rumbled through the room. "Child. Flee." The voice was heavy, commanding; filled with power even though it sounded so brittle.

Harry was too shocked by her appearance to register all that though. Her hair was grey and hid parts of her face, it hid scars that had obviously not been tended to with a loving hand. Half of the creases were not because of age but were scars. Those lifeless eyes shut and a pained expression came over the woman's face. She looked strong despite the hurt that she must have been in. She was a survivor.

Harry felt his throat tightening as his heart broke for this woman. Suddenly the words that the woman had croaked out came registered within Harry. "How can I flee when you need my help." Harry said before he realized it.

The woman's eyes narrowed in distrust at that statement. She raised to her full stature, her body shaking as it was trying to support her own weight. "This is no place for children. Go back foolish, insolent Uchiha."

"I can't do that. Please sit down." Harry said kindly. "You're dying, you shouldn't exert your body like that now." Harry walked towards her. He wasn't even half as tall as the woman was. "What is your name?"

The woman's eyes followed Harry as he got within arm's reach of her. "My name?" she asked just a moment before her chained arms moved faster than should be possible for such a frail looking woman. Harry was grabbed by his throat and slammed into the wall, strong fingers choking the life out of him. He tried to resist but couldn't move his arms, his legs, he couldn't move his body.

"My name is Shimekukuri, your ending." she whispered, a manic look covering her face.

The door slammed open, a man with a drawn kunai in his hands and a murderous glint made his way to the two.

Her fingers tightened even more around his throat and Harry could feel his head getting lighter. It wouldn't be long before life would escape him. His eyes slowly closed and his head started to go down. 'Mangekyou Sharingan.' He managed to mouth soundlessly. His eyes opened revealing madly spinning red orbs.

Their eyes connected, her grip on his throat released and Harry slid to the ground; both not present in that room anymore.

A kunai connected with flesh, blood splattered on the walls, someone died.

* * *

><p>Her mind was clear and her clothing flowed around her, draping her strong body in the softest silk. Her hair was brushed and framed her face in waves of dark purple. Wind was caressing her soft unblemished skin, the sun was bathing her in perfect delight. She was at peace. She had always been at peace, for as long as she could remember.<p>

She was lying down, face up; staring at the purest sky. Such a beauty should be celebrated, she thought as she easily- too easily- got on her feet and started moving to the rhythm that the wind and leaves were creating. This was life, it was precious and she realized that. She realized almost too well.

Her arms were light as the gentle breeze carried her, guided her. Fingers spread, head tilt back, back arched her arms were as wide as the could possibly be. Her feet were moving on their own accord as she danced faster and faster. Hair was flowing in all directions; she was the embodiment of nature, she could dance with the grace of a diving eagle, the footing of an ancient tree and the beauty of morning dew.

She danced on the rhythm of the wind until the sun set and the moon welcomed her to the night. Falling to the ground, letting the grass softly embrace her, she heard the world around her turn silent. For a moment she closed her eyes, to always remember the beauty of silence.

Flash! Chains were cutting her skin, leaving behind red lines, she was no longer free. Flash! A dark room turned bright she closed her eyes out of pain. Flash! A man with long blonde hair placed his hands on her forehead and she screamed. Flash! Her hand stuck in the ribcage of a red haired woman holding her heart.

Shimekukuri opened her eyes, a silent scream on her lips, sweat on her forehead. She sat upright. This was wrong! So utterly wrong, she couldn't think with a clear head! Why couldn't she remember before? Was that her in those flashes?

Her thoughts stopped as, beside the tree she had danced to before, there appeared a shimmer of green light. It was bouncing, slowly, up and down, up and down. Hypnotizing her; she needed to go to that light; the light was safe, it would protect her, keep her out of reach.

Of what?

Walking towards the wisp it disappeared and reappeared beside another tree. Faithfully she followed it she knew, to her very essence; the light would protect her, guide her, keep her safe, out of reach.

Out of reach of what?

Again the wisp came into existence, luring her, guiding her. It was still going up and down, up and down. She got closer this time, so close she could almost touch, almost feel it. Green light turned yellow, yellow turned white, and white disappeared as her mind cleared up. The moon fell out of the sky, trees shriveled and oozed black goo. Soft clouds turned asphalt grey and fell down, down, down and shattered as they touched the sharp grass blades. Wind rushed, harder, harder, faster, faster...

The earth cracked, light erupted around her and unveiled a robed man just behind her, grey hair that reached the ground, a untidy beard that reached almost the man's knees; a shocked look engraved on his face. "How?" the man asked, his voice never reached her, the wind howled, screamed and shielded her. The man raised his arms, trying to shield his piercing, green eyes.

The light protected her, guided her, kept her safe, out of reach; as it always had. Out of reach of those who's greed was unbecoming. Of those who wanted her greatest secret.

"No." She said, commanded, _willed_. The world was in chaos, stars were falling, dying, cried while the sky turned red, black clouds formed out of their ash. "Tsukuyomi." she spat out in disgust, her fair skin started to sag, her bright eyes turned dull purple grey. Her hair shriveled up, black became grey. Her dress rippled from silk into wool. Unblemished complexion erupted with dark spots, lines started to engrave themselves in her skin, her sagging skin started to fold over itself, her bones screamed as they turned brittle and old.

"You, fool." Her hands became chained as she started to hunch.

The man raised his arm and looked at his own bony hand, green eyes looking confused. "Is this me?" Looking at his other hand "Is this what _he_ had kept from me?" shriveled lips said with a voice that sounded as old as time.

"Uchiha arrogance." Shimekukuri tilted her head, she was superior; her entire body radiated it. "No Uchiha could fool a Senju of purity; I'll admit it was well thought out. Coming to me disguised as a child, using those cursed eyes to suck me into your genjutsu, Tsukuyomi!"

The man looked up at her, she was baffled by his age, he looked older than even her, and wise, so wise but a fool nonetheless. Tricking her! Greater men had died at her hands for less. "Did you think that just because you altered your Tsukuyomi I wouldn't have a proper defense against it? How low the Uchiha have fallen."

The man seemed to slowly regain his composure. "This was never meant to happen, I meant to-"

"Oh, but it happened, you challenged Senju and now _**you **_will suffer the consequences. I will honor my name." Chained hands clasped together, the wind died down. Steel rattled as clouds started to move faster, faster, _furious_. The moon glowing brighter, brighter until it became pitch black and was erased from existence. Chained hands started to glow blue. Grey hair started to flow in the windless air. Blemished fingers intertwined and the green eyed man started to rise into the air, rise, rise, rise. Vines erupted from the ground, protruded the man's neck, he screamed. Vines erupted and entangled the man.

"Your mind is mine now, Uchiha." Dull purple eyes glowed with power. Shriveled lips grinned. The screaming stopped. "You shall be a great replacement for my old body."

"I.. Refuse." The man dared to utter out. "My mind is mine." He said defying her command, _her will_. His in vines entangled hands broke free, the vines that had entered his neck shriveled, blackened and turn to dust, slowly he descended to the ground. "You are strong. But. I. Will. _**Not**_. Be. Controlled!" Each word strengthened the man, an eerie glow surrounding him.

Shimekukuri's face distorted in anger. Hands raised, glowed brighter, brighter, the blue glow turned darker, darker so dark it was painful to look at. "You shall submit. I have lived too long to give in now!" Grey hair lengthened, turned dark green, nailed to the ground. Vines erupted once more, thorned spikes, as wide as a tree. The eerie glow surrounding the man hardly protected him anymore. Vines pierced through him, eyes bulged. Green vines turned blood red.

"I…" The man tried to say something but vines crawled out of his mouth, thorns shredding everything they touched. The man was less than a hump of flesh, hardly recognizable.

"Now you're mine, How foolish, how arrogant to suck me into Tsukuyomi. I am your end, and you are my next beginning. I shall have your body and you will die." She smirked and started to work on tearing the Tsukuyomi down. "The wait was well worth it while. Oh, I shall be great once more!"

* * *

><p>Kakashi was standing next to Anko behind a one way mirror. "What made you send him in here with her this early in his career?" he asked, hands in his pockets.<p>

"Meh, it was out of my hands. If it were up to me he wouldn't even be allowed anywhere near a holding cell, no matter how much of a prodigy he might be, he hardly has any experience with this kind of shit." Anko's feet were tapping the ground, she was nervous. The old hag had killed more shinobi in confinement than even Anko had in her entire career. Inwards she cursed at the council, they gave her a cute plaything to mold, to make into a good interrogator. How truly annoying that they, the council, decided to meddle into the normally not meddled with T&I department, now she could possibly lose a potentially fun, worthy student.

"I see." Kakashi looked through his own reflection straight at the small boy he had become so attached to. He heard a loud thud as the lamps were turned on by Anko. The woman winced, but Kakashi didn't mind that. His focus was on Harry. Harry who froze as he took in the sight of the woman.

Harry listened as the woman started talking, they conversed.

"What is the brat trying to do?" Anko asked in disbelief. "Does he feel sorry for her?"

Kakashi kept staring "Harry has a big heart, perhaps too big." He said almost dismissively. "But it is undeniable that he has what it takes to become a great ninja, he can kill his heart, not unlike you."

Anko scoffed at this. "Meh, we will see."

Suddenly there was movement in the interrogation room "Oh shit." Anko muttered. The old woman had slammed Harry into the mirror, her nails digging into his neck. Harry's body turned slack.

Kakashi vanished in a blur, kicked open the door, a Kunai already in his hand. The woman released Harry as his Mangekyou activated. The shift in chakra was almost palpable. Kakashi hadn't noticed though, it was red before his eye, the kunai had cut through the aorta of the old woman just a moment after she was caught in the Mangekyou's technique.

Anko appeared behind Kakashi "We need to make this look like a suicide or there will be great repercussions for you, fast, you take care of the brat, I will take care of her."

Kakashi nodded, took Harry in his arms. He was so tiny, felt so nimble. What were the elders and the council thinking when they had put him in there with her?

"Kakashi." Anko said before Kakashi left with Harry. "Remember; this never happened. Uchiha Haru had a kunai on his person, and Shimekukuri took it before he even had a chance to stop her." Anko's face didn't betray any feeling whatsoever, but her actions spoke volumes. "Now hurry, before 'they' notice she is dead and see the blood on you."

Kakashi disappeared as both he and Uchiha Haru became one with the walls, not a moment too soon.

Three masked shinobi walked in just as Anko laid down the body in a less compromising way "What happened?"

Anko hid her smirk, just in time. "The council are a bunch of fuckheads. That's what happened!"

* * *

><p>Sasuke was sitting next to his brother in the hospital, never before had Haru looked so frail, so tiny, so… so vulnerable. Haru was always the strong one, always the fastest when they ran, always the smartest, always better, always untouchable.<p>

"Uchiha Sasuke?" Sasuke nodded. "Your little brother is in the hospital, you may visit him now."

Never before had Sasuke heard such cold words, not even Itachi had sounded so uncaring at his worst. The masked purple haired woman had shown up in his window unannounced and had scared the living daylight out of him and left him that message before she left in a blur. He had sat there disbelieving for almost a minute before his mind had caught up, he had raced towards the hospital.

Never before had he run that fast, that desperate. But now that he was in the hospital he could do nothing but sit still. Haru's teammates had visited, both had stayed for a while the girl longer than the boy. The grey haired man, Kakashi, had been there before Sasuke had arrived, he was still there, just standing next to the window his single eye making him look unfazed, uncaring.

Sasuke had asked what happened, but had gotten no answer, he had screamed; outraged, and in righteous anger kicked, punched the one eyed man who just wouldn't tell what had happened. "That's classified information." he had said before picking him up and placing him on the chair next to Haru. His little brother.

His little brother that laid unmoving, his little brother… Sasuke stood up and walked towards Haru for the umpteenth time, he reached for his hand, it felt so hot, as if he was burning up. "Come on Haru, time to wake up buddy. Or I'll have to tell Naruto you can't take him out to eat ramen Friday, and that would be a drag, so wake up okay?" Sasuke shed a tear, but nothing happened. Haru remained unmoving, stiff even.

Anger at his powerlessness took over and Sasuke screamed, screamed until his lungs gave up, his throat was sore. Kakashi just stood there. Haru just lie there, unmoving. Haru just laid there.

Haru just laid there, his younger brother laid there. The brother he was suposed to protect and care for. Suddenly Haru's limbs moved erratically, as if he was having a seizure. "Nurse! Nurse! **_Doctor_**!" Sasuke screamed, what was wrong? What was happening?

Out of nowhere two arms wrapped around him and he was carried away, medical personal ran in. strong arms pulled him away from his brother. Screams were heard, Haru was screaming. Shrieking, high pitched, ear drum shattering, shrieking. What was wrong with his little brother?

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So a smaller chapter, couldn't leave you guys with a cliffhanger for too long, now could I?<strong>

**I want to thank Lexandria for Beta-reading this chapter. So... what do you all think will happen next chapter? well here is a little sneak peak:**

**SPOILER  
><strong>

**SPOILER**

**SPOILER**

**"**

_She woke up, her head felt sore, her arms heavy. "Ghrr.." her throat dry and raspy. Her eyes had trouble opening, heavy eyes, tired eyes._

_"Haru! You're awake!" she heard a voice say, arms came out of nowhere before the they took hold of her._

_She blinked her eyes, in front of her a young boy's face. 'Sasuke, brother, a few years older' memories rushed to the front of her mind "Hi Sasuke." She said caringly. White walls, annoying light; she was in the hospital._

**"**


	28. A constant guest is never welcome part 2

**AN: Yay! New chapter, and a pretty big one this time, decided to post this entire arc in just one chapter so be ready for a long sit. This chapter you get Shimekukuri background, Danzo plotting, Elders screwing with my plot and Kakashi being played by an old hawk. Oh that and Magic returns to storybrooke, I mean this story.**

**Small warning, lots of weird things going on this chapter. And a huge thank you to Lexandria for being an awesome Beta!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 27: A constant guest is never welcome part 2<strong>

A shadowed figure entered a building that was lit only by moonlight through a cracked window. The building was guarded well, but to those knowing how to get in unnoticed it didn't matter how many guards were patrolling the building outside.

The shadow hardly stood out from the dark halls it was creeping through. His feet made no sound when they came in touch with the ground. The ninja, for it was obvious that the shadow was a trained shinobi, knew his way around the building for he didn't check a map or opened any unnecessary doors while traveling the compound toward his destination.

In less than two minutes the man stopped walking and opened a hidden door through unidentifiable means. As the door opened a well-lit stairway invited the shadowed man in. The man stepped into the light and started to run down the steps, the man was cloaked in black cloth and had hidden his entire face with a white mask adorned with red stripes.

Opening the door at the end of the stairway the man had reached his destination. A chamber filled with cabinets. Each cabinet was filled to the brim with files, the cabinets were locked but to the trained shinobi that proved to be a futile protection, within a few seconds the man had opened a particularly dusty specimen and searched through the files until he found the one that he had come for.

"File; 08121989: Project ROOTS"

It was empty.

* * *

><p>She woke up, her head felt sore, her arms heavy. "Ghrr.." her throat dry and raspy. Her eyes had trouble opening, heavy eyes, tired eyes.<p>

"Haru! You're awake!" she heard a voice say, arms came out of nowhere before they took hold of her.

She blinked her eyes, in front of her a young boy's face. 'Sasuke, brother, a few years older' memories rushed to the front of her mind "Hi Sasuke." She said fondly. White walls, annoying light; she was in the hospital.

"Sasuke, could you let go, you're kind of choking me here." Her body was small, her eyes were sharp, her chakra strong, familiar.

"You're awake." A low voice said, she turned her head and her eyes fell on a tall man, spikey grey hair and only one eye visible. 'Kakashi, second sensei, one normal eye one Sharingan.' again memories rushed to the front of her mind.

"So it seems." She was chained to the bed, why? "Why am I chained?" her voice betraying her doubt; had they already found out? Did they suspect?

Kakashi's eye narrowed, guilt? "You had a seizure; they strapped you to the bed so you wouldn't hurt yourself too much." The Jounin moved towards her bed "How are you feeling?"

A smile crept on her face, her body might feel sore but she hadn't felt this good in years. "Better than I look. Really good actually."

* * *

><p>Long stone pillars covered in dust supported a supposedly forgotten hideout just outside of Konoha. In times of old merchants used the hideout if they couldn't reach the village in time while under attack. But as all things do with time it became forgotten to the public until two aged Konoha politicians declared the hideout their own. Away from peeking eyes.<p>

* * *

><p>Shimekukuri stretched her limbs; they were so tiny it took some time getting used to. She had been discharged from the hospital after she had been deemed healthy. Still they had held her for two days. Two days in which people the Uchiha had made bonds with had visited her, it took a lot out of her each time a new face walked through the door and she had to sort through all of the boys memories.<p>

That was another thing, she was a he now… Uchiha Haru, or as friends called her, Harry. She knew there was a reason why they called her Harry, but it was cloudy when she tried to reach for old memories. 'How many memories does this kid have?' she wondered. She could feel old memories but couldn't make them her own. Perhaps she had damaged the boy's mind when she tore down his Tsukuyomi, it didn't matter though. She was in control now, nothing could change that and with time she would know everything this boy knew. All she needed was time, and with a body as young as this, well, she had time to spare.

A young body indeed, but strong nonetheless. She could feel with every step that if she wanted to she could crush the earth under her feet. 'Extraordinary' she had thought as soon as she was allowed to leave the hospital bed.

She had been at 'home' for a few hours now but soon she had to appear before Anko. Anko was Haru's no Anko was her direct superior in the T&I department and she wanted him to debrief her. She already had her story all thought out, they had made up a perfectly good excuse for what had happened, though she had to admit, he had resisted her jutsu much harder than she had expected, even now she could feel his presence, but in time once she had all his memories that tiny spark of Uchiha Haru would vanish, all in due time.

"Haru, Haru!" the voice she had already come to dread screamed. Uchiha Haru had, no she had a bigger brother. It was a confusing label though; Haru had considered Sasuke as the little brother. Thinking about Sasuke made her feel protective, he was important, he was family. She hated him.

"Yes?" she asked, her voice not betraying her own feelings at all, she had been too well trained to let her act down in even the most private of moments. "What is it?"

"We haven't trained in a while, and seeing as you've been lying in a bed for the last week you must be irking to get some training in right? So… let's see if you can still beat me?" He asked her. It was almost cute how much he tried to be nice to her, him.

"Sure." Training his brother was something Haru, no was something she had done a lot. It was where they bonded, where he, where she could see how Sasuke was doing both physically as mentally. 'Mentally?' What kind of child cares about his brother's state of mind? Why would he- Why would she need to worry about that? "I'll be on the lake in a few minutes…" she put her hand against her head. 'Why don't I have access to all of your memories… why? WHY?' she pushed her mind through the clouded memories, she nearly drowned in them and pulled back.

'Occlumency'… the word came to her, it sounded foreign, it was an old word. She filed it away, she would need time, lots of time to spit through this boy's mind, her mind she reminded herself. Though a nagging voice in the back of her mind wasn't so sure of that.

She pushed it all aside, it wasn't worth knowing for now, she would know soon, once she had assimilated all of the boy's memories. For now she needed to test out this body; and what better a way than to beat up the annoying child that was Uchiha Sasuke.

She took off her vest and shirt and admired the way the way his- her body looked. Despite the lithe look of the body it was obvious there was not a percentage of fat to find; it was all muscle. 'Yes, this body will do just fine.'

Walking towards the lake she could see Sasuke standing with an almost arrogant look on his face, proud of his skills, proud to be able to stand on water. "Good to see you've kept up with your own training." She said complimenting the taller boy.

She carefully walked onto the lake herself though her carefulness was unwarranted, this body almost instinctively knew to exert the right amount of chakra to keep on standing. She walked over the lake, step by step until she got within arm distance of his- her brother, she dropped into a wide-legged stance going through his- her knees and raised both her arms with her palms wide open. 'Interesting stance.' "Ready?"

Sasuke dropped into a similar stance "Yeah.", though the difference between was obvious, while she had no openings other than the ones she had created herself Sasuke's was full of them. "Sixty-three openings, Sasuke." She teased. "Defend yourself!"

Water splashed around as she dashed forward, palm ready to strike Sasuke's left shoulder. She was fast, but Sasuke was no slouch himself and deftly used his own hands to block her. "Good." She said before she withdrew her hand and went for a roundhouse kick.

Sasuke tried to block his footing didn't allow him to step back in time. A kick connected with his knee, and he shrieked at the contact. His eyes hardened as he looked at her, ignoring his knee he tried to take advantage of her momentum as he used both hands to throw her. She didn't allow him to lay a hand on her body though and ducked under his hand letting herself fall through the water and take hold of the bigger boy's ankles and drag him underwater as well. He tried to kick her away but Haru's grip was without a doubt too strong for Sasuke to break.

Having dragged the bigger boy underwater she climbed on the boys back, making him unable to move his arms. 'I could kill him now… get rid of this annoyance. 'She contemplated that thought for a second, and another, and one more. Sasuke in the meantime was panicking, his legs flapping around while air was starting to escape. 'But that would complicate my mission.'

She let go of Sasuke who in turn raced his way to the surface. She had beaten him to it of course, how could she not in a body that was in such a good condition? Looking down on the pitiful Uchiha she couldn't help but to smirk, she'd never let an Uchiha beat her. Never.

"You need to remember that fighting on water comes with certain dangers, Sasuke…" She chastised him. She liked chastising him, liked to bring the little shit down a peg or two. Still two eyes looked at her defiantly, the boy was sure of himself, of his own prowess his own capability.

Getting on his feet again he coughed a couple of times but didn't keep his eyes away from her. "Let's go again". Perhaps this was why Haru had cared so much for Sasuke's mental state, he was very welcoming to physical pain.

"Sure." She said, ready to see how far she could push this body until Sasuke would be unable to continue.

Half an hour later she found out after she had kicked the boy in the groin area, he fell down so fast it was almost comically. "I am sorry Sasuke, are you alright?" She asked while the boy had tears welling up in his eyes. He had bruises forming all over his body by now, but her body was still not even sweating, this boy was not nearly enough to test this body on, she would need someone stronger, faster, smarter than Sasuke; she hadn't even needed to activate her Sharingan.

Sasuke, with a pained voice, said "I'm fine, looks like you didn't get any weaker while lying in bed."

Shimekukuri helped the boy up, petting his back and walking him to the grass lawn. "I am sorry Sasuke, I went a bit rough on you there… It's just that I want you to become strong, stronger than you are now."

Sasuke nodded in understanding, clenching his fists. "I want to get stronger to."

* * *

><p>Anko sat in her comfy chair eating, what else, dango. She was going through some files that needed her signature; it was one of the more boring aspects of her job as a ninja. But alas, it needed to be done so she might as well enjoy herself while doing. And dango insured that she enjoyed the time she had to spend on the task.<p>

However it wasn't long until her time would be consumed with something less enjoyable. A buzzing sound alarmed her that someone was waiting for her. She opened a drawer and placed the files in it. Downing her twelfth dangostick she burped loudly and made her way to meet her cute little student.

She hadn't seen the boy seen since the.. incident. She had taken care of it though. Filed it away so fast that no one would be the wiser that the old hag had died at the hands of someone other than herself.

She opened the door to the main hall and her eyes immediately fell on the tiny body that belonged to her little student. "Brat, with me!" she said hoping the Uchiha would silently follow her. Young shinobi were fun and all but their voices, like nails on a chalkboard. She shuddered thinking about it. "Now!" she said when Haru turned around too slowly to her taste.

She turned around and walked back to her office, not bothering to look behind her to see if the brat was following her or not, once in her office she sat in her chair and placed her feet on the desk. "So brat, how are ya feeling?"

Haru seated himself a smile nearly splitting his face in two, quite the shocking sight to behold. "Wonderful!"

"Wonderful?" she repeated unsure how Haru could feel wonderful when there were so many reasons not to feel awesome.

"Yeah, want to know why?" he asked leaning forward and talking as if he was conspiring with her.

Removing her feet of the desk she leaned forward as well. "Sure, tell me, I can't wait." Her tone sarcastic- the way she liked it best.

"I know where her mother is!" the little shit said.

"Sure you do… Sounds like you bumped your head or something." She leaned back into her chair. "Perhaps I should get a medic to look at your head, you're clearly not all there."

"I am being serious about this, I know where she hid her mother's body." Haru had gotten to his feet. "When she grabbed me by the throat, I used my genjutsu on her. She was too weak to fight against it, I. Know. Where she hid her!"

"Okay kid, let's say I believe you; where did she bury the body?"

"She lies forever buried under the great tree, the first of all the end of one." Haru said in a sing song voice. "That's what she said."

Anko took a deep breath, so the kid got something out of the wench after all, it sounded an eerily lot like the bitch. "So she gave you a riddle. Great!" Anko looked at the boy as if he was growing another head, he was still smiling. "You figured it out didn't you?" She smirked "So, you gonna tell me where the body is or do I need to persuade you through nefarious means?"

Haru's eyes held an unidentifiable emotion in them for a split second before looking horrified. "What kind of person would threaten a child like me with that?" he asked uneasily. "I'll tell you, don't worry!"

Just her luck, after almost a century it was her little student that had gotten an answer out of the bitch. Of course the bitch had almost killed him, well, she guessed, sometimes things aren't as difficult or impossible as previously thought. Though way back in her mind something felt wrong, too easy. "Okay tell me..."

Haru procured a neatly folded map from his pockets and gave it to her. Anko unfolded it; it showed a map of Konoha with a red pen a landmark was encircled. "I knew I had read about the first tree somewhere, it was in the Uchiha clan library- oh that makes me remember, I'll need that map returned to me after we found the body of her mother. It is a precious memorabilia from the days of old of my clan after all."

"Brat, you talk too much." Anko sighed.

* * *

><p>In a forgotten hideout just outside of Konoha a man and a woman were planning what to do with their pawn turned knight. Their plot had worked without a lot of effort on their part, a nudge here. A signature there. Their newly acquired knight was more than worth those little manipulations.<p>

They didn't have nearly enough influence in the shinobi forces, and a young star such as their knight would surely rise fast enough for them to make actual use of. Yes, though they had sacrificed a useful pawn, they had acquired a knight, a knight that would be able to manipulate the queen while defending the king.

* * *

><p>In all of Konoha there was only one office more feared than the Hokage's office. The room itself was not much to look at, naked walls, wooden panels on the floor and a simple desk with three small stacks of was quite a boring room indeed, but one factor inside that chamber more than compensated for the fact that it was so utterly ordinary.<p>

Morono Ibiki sat in almost comfortable chair behind a neatly organized desk. His face was lit by a single candle that burned. He liked the fleetingness of a candle, he hated lamps for the simple reason that they felt fake. Ibiki liked things real, he liked for them to be real. It was why he was so good at his job, he could practically smell untruthfulness on a person, in their words.

Ibiki looked up as he could hear someone approaching his office, the person stopped before his office, three knocks "Come in." he had barely said the words before the door burst open and in walked Anko.

"Already done with the Uchiha?" he asked, his tone was almost pulling an answer out of Anko by the sheer intensity of it.

"We know where she is! The brat managed to actually get an answer out of the old hag." Anko's lips turned into thin lines before turning upward. "My brat, Ibiki. Told ya he was gonna do awesome."

Ibiki ignored her last words. "I'll have a team ready to retrieve the body. What is the location?"

* * *

><p>Anko Looked down the eviscerated ( I like this word…) grounds that had been dug in for almost five hours now. It wouldn't be long before one of the digging chuunin would find the physical remains they were looking for.<p>

Next to her stood Uchiha Haru, the prodigy that had gotten, after a hundred years, the answer. "Found her!" a voice said piercing through the sound of a dozen shovels tearing the ground apart.

Shimekukuri inched closer to the edge, trying to look at the bones of her origin. The bones looked shockingly unfamiliar.

She had buried the body herself, it had been raining the night she had left that body in the soil of Konoha. It had been raining so hard the earth had turned into mud and had tried to claim her as well. But she had come too far, had too many regrets already to not try and fix her mistakes. Besides; her boys needed her to protect them.

She had never regretted killing any girl as much as she had regretted killing her own daughter. Though if she was completely honest to herself she would probably do it all over again. Mito had been a danger to them all.

"Well done Uchiha. This will go down on your record as a successful A-ranked mission." A low voice said from behind her. With her sleeve she brushed away a single tear.

"What will they do with the body?" she asked, her voice steady despite the emotional turmoil she currently felt trapped in.

Ibiki frowned. "They will try to find its secrets."

"What kind of secrets?"

An old voice answered "As refreshing your inquisitive nature is young Uchiha Haru, that answer is above your pay grade." The hokage looked over the dug up sight and mumbled to himself "We found her, sensei."

* * *

><p>Hidden by dusty stone pillars traitorous words were exchanged. "She has kept up her end of the deal." A male voice said. "It is time for us to keep up ours."<p>

Wooden sandals click clacked on the stone tiles as a women walked away. "I shall take care of that."

* * *

><p>Uchiha Haru walked through the streets of Konoha, a confident stride as if he owned the place. The confident strutting didn't go unnoticed, the villagers had heard of the boy's latest successes. However, not all on foot traveling ninja were as easily noticed as the young boy.<p>

About twenty feet above Uchiha Haru crept a man cloaked in darkness, unnoticed by anyone, he kept a close eye on the youngest Uchiha in Konoha. For he, and he alone knew the danger that was Uchiha Haru.

* * *

><p>Shimekukuri planted herself on bed, today had been tiring. Seeing those bones had been a more emotional event than she had previously considered. The freedom this body gave her was well worth the small hardships she had to go through though.<p>

She was tired and wanted to sleep, but a ninja knew that sometimes you couldn't do what you wanted to do but that the mission came first. Shimekukuri got up and walked towards the cracked mirror that resided in the corner of the room.

"Such a sad memory." She murmured as she remembered a boy- Haru- sitting in front of the mirror, staring at himself. Tears had been pouring out of his eyes, a look of disgust engraved on his face, the sight of his own face was too disgusting. A fist in the mirror, blood dripping on the floor. It didn't feel any better.

'I still have so many memories to make my own.' Sitting down she saw a box with the broken shards just behind the mirror. She could understand the feeling of being disgusted by yourself, she had felt that way once, a long long time ago. But she had a mission now and thinking about those times didn't help her, not at all. She needed to make Uchiha Haru hers, the body was not enough, she needed his memories.

As her eyes closed she didn't drift off into old memories of her own that had started to plague her since she transferred into this body but into the memories of Uchiha Haru.

* * *

><p>Naruto, on his way to the Uchiha district passed the only orange bench in Konoha, he considered it his bench. It had always been his bench, when he was younger and no one would play with him this bench always made him feel safe. The giant umbrella-shaped topiary that guarded the bench from the summer rain. But in all truthfulness lately he hadn't sat there truly alone for a long time.<p>

He had made friends, true friends. Friends that would sit with him to talk about a myriad of things, friends he could train with, could laugh with until his jaws started to hurt. Friends that didn't let him sit alone in the summer rains but would invite him in their house to keep him warm.

Yes, it was a really nice bench, he didn't give into the urge to just sit on it for old times' sake and continued his walk to the Uchiha District.

It took only twenty minutes for Naruto to find a particular house in the Uchiha District; it was one of the prettier ones. Three stories high it towered above the one stories houses it was surrounded by. Naruto made his way to the yard where one of his two friends, not that he would ever admit it to the boy, was walking on the pond that reflected the suns light tenfold..

'Walking on water?' Naruto's mind couldn't quite get understand how the boy did that. "Hey, Sasuke!" he yelled.

Sasuke turned around and looked at him. "What are you doing here?" the bastard that was his friend asked.

"Meh, I was in the neighborhood, thought I'd come by.. But what are you doing? Can you show me how you can walk on water?" Naruto tried to sound indifferent but his enthusiasm at learning something as awesome as walking on water overrode his thin mask of deceit.

"No." the dark haired boy said smirking.

"Ow, come on! Why not?" Naruto rushed to the side of the water closest to Sasuke.

"Because you are too weak to try something like this." The smirk on Sasuke's face became even smugger.

"Too weak? I am not weak!" Naruto yelled his feelings hurt.

"Yes you are, you can't even use your chakra to walk on trees. What makes you think you could even walk on water?"

"Well, teach me. Show me how and I'll have it down faster than you!" Naruto's smile lit up his eyes. "Come on, I'll do something for you in return? Please Sasuke!"

"What could I possibly want from you, Naruto?" despite his words Sasuke actually had a thoughtfull look on his face, was he considering Naruto's offer?

"I have coupons to a free meal at Ichiraku's." Naruto said seductively. "They won't expire until next week.. so… how does that sound?" Naruto was sure he had him with this offer, who could ever turn down ramen?

"No." Sasuke said while Naruto's heart broke. "But I have an idea… A counteroffer." And with those words Naruto's heart started beating again.

"Sure, just say it!"

Sasuke walked towards him "I'll teach you how to walk on trees if you will be my moving target for Shuriken practice for the duration it takes or you to learn tree walking and perhaps even water walking."

Naruto didn't have to think twice about that. "Deal!"

"Oh… one more thing." Sasuke said his eyes holding an evil glint. "You'll have to call me sensei."

* * *

><p>She was falling through thick clouds, each cloud containing memories. She tried to latch herself onto one of the shapeless nebulosity she was in but she couldn't ,something made it impossible for her to get a grip.<p>

Falling harder, faster it was dizzying. Plowing through clouds as if they weren't even there. She could vaguely see memories inside the vapor but they drifted by too fast, too fast to get even an idea of what was happening inside the vague images.

She must have passed a thousand clouds drenched in some sort of silvery blue liquid that came out of the clouds as if it was rain before she fell into a strikingly dark cloud and stopped falling.

She wanted to blink but couldn't, tall brick building surrounded her and there were weird noises. She couldn't move around herself, yet she was moving. She wasn't in Konoha, that was for sure. It looked more like she was in Amegakure yet it looked so different. The road was paved with asphalt and there were vehicles, cars? Words were flooding her head as she learned, remembered words she hadn't even dreamt of.

She was walking on a street in Moscow, Russia. She had been looking for a certain person- Gorginov for almost two days now. He had hidden himself well but no one could hide from the scale keeper for long. 'The scale keeper?' Shimekukuri wondered. 'What is that?' but unlike with other words no memories rushed to the front of her mind.

It was cold she noticed as soon as a fleck of snow touched her skin; it was winter. She had robes hugging her body and they billowed in the wind as she procured a wooden stick- wand from one of her inner pockets and pointed it at herself, instantly she no longer felt the painful cold that was in the wind.

She was heading toward a castle of sorts, Triumph Palace, The building was huge. Where in the world did buildings reach so high in the sky? Once again words answered her question 'Europe, Russia, Moscow.' The words shouldn't have made sense to her for they didn't exist, yet they did.

The irony didn't escape her, Sven Gorginov had made an entire building disappear from the eyes of civilians, a palace of victory, the place where he would be destined to be defeated and meet his end.

Standing in front of the palace she withdrew another, stronger wand and with a tight corkscrew-like movement opened the enormous doors. She could feel layers upon layers of chakra- no older, magic. "To go to such extremes to protect yourself… I feel almost ashamed to undo it all, its beautifully done." Yet despite the statement the wand made graceful movements and power rippled in waves off it. It ate away the layers of magic, broke it down and swallowed it whole. Within seconds she had abolished all magic that could hinder her so she made her way up, she passed a mirror and saw herself; a robed young man, unsettlingly green eyes and a black mop of hair. Etched on her forehead was a lightning bolt scar. The reflection lasted but seconds yet it was long enough for Shimekukuri to recognize the man she was currently hosted by. The same man she had defeated in Uchiha Haru's mind.

It took a while before she reached the fifty-seventh floor where she was met by two men in black robes. "I am here to meet with Sven Gorginov." She said with her wand lazily lying in her right hand.

One of the men, a blonde pale man with one lazy eye shook his head while taking hold of his own wand. "We are under strict orders, the boss doesn't want to be disturbed at the moment." The other man also went for his wand and leveled it at her.

"You look familiar." He said with a thick Russian accent. "Who are you?"

She smiled. "You may call me Harry."

"No last name?" The blonde asked tauntingly while the second guy had a wondering look on his face.

"Just Harry." She said, still smiling politely. Though from the inside she could feel how venomous her words sounded.

"Hans, I think we should let him in." the second man said, keeping one eye trained on her person while facing the blonde named Hans.

"No, we had orders."

Her smile slowly faded. "I suggest you listen to your friend here, you see it is of the utmost importance that I go inside that room and have a delightful conversation with mister Gorginov."

Hans sneered at her and raised his wand a bit more. "You have three seconds to get out of here with your head still attached to your body." He threatened.

"Hans, don't.. I think I know who that man is." The second man said trying to calm his friend down.

"No, we have orders!"

"Hans, I think that is Harry Potter! Lower your wand and just let him in!" the brown haired guard said while distancing himself from Hans.

Hans let out a laugh "Ha, as if that man is still alive."

"But just look at his scar! Lightning bolt!"

"Mne pohui (1)." Hans said while his wand made a half circle in the air and released a red bolt of light.

"Oh shit." The second guard said also firing a red bolt.

The bolts of red both impacted on a shimmering shield with a resounding bong. Her shield had protected her. "I'll ask you once more, please move aside and let me in."

"Avada Kedavra." Hans yelled, his wand trembled before releasing a thin green beam.

She shook her head in disappointment and with a flick of her wrist conjured a plague of gold that stopped the green beam. "If asking nicely won't help me, perhaps you'll respond to action." Without a movement or word she released a red beam from her wand.

Hans weaved his wand trying to summon a shield but just as he said "Pro-" the red beam connected with his chest and he fell down quite quickly.

Looking at the second man she quirked her eyebrow. "Sorry about your friend. Mind opening that door for me?" The smile was back on in full force and the brunette nodded quickly and rushed to open the door revealing a room with a man staring outside.

Walking into the room she heard the guard getting Hans and dragging him away.

"I was wondering who was undoing most of my curses. I am disappointed by the fact that it was just a boy." Sven Gorginov looked like a brute in stark contrast to his clean English. Shoulders as wide as a body builders and arms as strong as steel. He turned around and faced her without a hint of fear.

The face only had a few lines to betray his age, blond almost white hair was pulled back by hair gel and steel blue eyes connected with her own. "I am sorry to disappoint you; I guess we're even then." She said as if they were indeed having a decent conversation even though there was tension building up in the room.

The brutish looking Gorginov walked towards his desk, filled with maps. "And how, in Merlin's name, would I have disappointed you?"

She sighed. "When you were born you had such great potential to do good." She said, her heart ached, her wand was still in her hand, itching to be used. "I knew your great great something grandfather once, an honorable young man, not an evil bone in his body, alas I see that even the best of baskets can't have all of the eggs be perfect, some of them are just rotten."

The blonde huffed in indignation. "In this palace there are certain rules, you've already broken two; I would advise not breaking a third. My patience is not unlimited. Explain why you are here, if I like the reason you might leave unpunished if not…"

She cleared her throat. "I am here in the capacity of a moral judge of sorts. Sven Gorginov, for crimes against humanity I see no other path for you than a path that will end right here." She felt her voice going lower than before.

Gorginov with eyes ablaze and with a flick of his wrist freed his wand form his holster on his arm. Grabbing the fourteen inch Oleander wand and aiming it at her he spoke with a threatening tone. "What makes you think you can threaten me in my own palace?"

She just stood there, looking into the man, not a shred of goodness was left, the contrast between his soul and hair couldn't be more. "Such a blackened soul you have. What made you give up your humanity? Was it the death of your squib mother at the hands of a stray bullet?" She asked but seeing Gorginov still aiming his wand at her without flinching.

"That Voman meant nothing to me." Gorginov spat, his thick accent returning.

"Oh indeed, she meant nothing to you, perhaps it was the priest that scarred your life so thoroughly when he took your innocence just a week after having been placed into his loving care?" she tested out. But again the theory didn't quite feel right. "Oh my, I see it now; It was when you thought god answered your prayers and gave you the power of a wizard. Your first bout of accidental magic, so sad, choking the girl who refused your advances, you got away with it, the civilian police couldn't link the murder to you. You felt as if… as if it was God's way of telling you that you were to be God on earth; such a sad tale." She actually felt sad for him.

"What are you talking about! I am Sven Gorginov, Lord of Europe. And what are you? No more than a flubberworm under my boot." The brute was rather intimidating as saliva flew through the air with each syllable.

"I am talking about the origin of your hatred, Sven." She shook her head. "You've gone too far with your plan to rule all creation." Her free hand moved through her hair. "Your insanity has cost the life of three million innocent souls in the last year alone. You are tipping the balance between good and evil towards evil too much, and so to keep balance I find myself forced to take it upon myself to take action." The wand in her hand was singing to her, a song of power, a song of undeniable strength.

Gorginov smirked as a foul grey bolt of light erupted from his wand "Talking like that means nothing to me. You talk about balance? I am balance. This is a world of injustice however once I am in power justice shall rule with an iron fist." Another light flashed into existence as a purple curse rushed towards her.

With one swoop of her wand both curses sniffed out. Fighting like this was her second nature, she had ended over a thousand power hungry wizards and witches that had deemed themselves above morality, this one would be no different. Her wand moved fast, right, up, down slow withdraw and a precise stab; silver chains crept out of the walls and ceiling and sped towards Gorginov.

Gorginov let out a laugh "Is that all?" with a twirling movement the silver chains were transfigured into anaconda's that zig zagged their way to her.

She hissed and gurgled at the snakes who cowed their head before they disappeared. "Parselmouth?" Gorginov asked. "So the rumors are true. As I live and breathe, Harry Potter."

She grimaced at hearing that name, she was Harry Potter, memories rushed forward but they were all blank yet she was suddenly very aware of the fact that she was Harry Potter. "I haven't been just Harry Potter for a long time now, I am here as the Scale keeper." She pointed her wand upwards and with a fast slash brought it down diagonally. A whip of fire sprung to live and curled around Gorginov.

Gorginov looked unfazed at the display of impressive magic, as with a simple flame freezing spell he was hardly more than tickled by the flames. Carving a Z in the air he fired a blasting curse at her. Though a shimmering protego took the hit instead of her.

Her wand was excited by the amount of magic Gorginov put into his spells, the wand had a bloodlust that was so unlike her own peaceful character. "I believe we can be done playing around." She said as her speed doubled and three spells erupted from the tip of her wand each consecutive spell a more illuminated shade of yellow.

Gorginov blocked the curses by transfiguring the desk into an elephant, as the curses hit the animal it's leathery skin was eaten away. Flesh was rotting in mere moments as it was cursed by the second yellow light. When third curse hit the remaining carcass it incinerated the bones.

Pointing his wand at the dusty remains Gorginov transfigured each speck of dust into scarabs. Being aware of the dangers magical scarabs posed she didn't give him the time to control the scarabs, as with a jab of her own wand she vanished half of the scarabs and used a modified blasting curse to make the remaining beetles push Gorginov against the wall.

Gorginov screamed as the insects obliterated and the wall caved in while a magical shield formed around him.

"I have to compliment you, the Elder wand hasn't felt this alive in a long time, your will to live is commendable." She said while firing magenta colored curses at the blonde.

Gorginov's shield held true though and absorbed the barrage of overpowered stunners. "So it is true that you mastered the Elder wand? I must thank you for bringing it with you. It shall help me greatly with my rise to immortality after I pluck it out of your dead fingers." His wand went up and circled above his head, came down and jabbed forward. The ceiling came down on her and turned into machete sized knives.

Three oval twirls with her own wand turned the knives in water and with two small jabs the water stopped moving. "Your wand work is exceptional, but you are far from my own level of expertise. Allow me to educate you in the difference between our powers." Her wand rushed through the air as three runes of fire made itself apparent burning in the air. The water vaporized and went through the remaining carcass of the building as if it was butter that was being sliced by a warm knife.

Gorginov's shield held up for five seconds as steam shaved it layer for layer, the building was collapsing. The ground under their feet started crumbling. Gorginov's eyes narrowed into a scowl. His wand was making large square motions into the air. Steam stopped harassing his hardly present shield and turned on her, a malicious grin made itself master of Sven's countenance.

She worried not though, the burning runes were still doing their work and before the vaporized water even came near her it realized it's true master and rushed back to finish off Gorginov. For good measure she raised her own wand and clasped it with both her hands before bringing it down like a sword. Lightning cracked through the snow filled air as it struck through the brutes shield. Gorginov caught the bolt with his wand and redirected it down into the streets where it hit a lantern. But the steam no longer being put off by his shield now went for the wizard himself.

With a scream of anguish and two small jabs with his wand the blonde used the vacuum charm around the three runes, the fire burned itself up and thus the magic couldn't sustain itself any longer, the stone runes fell to the ground. While Steam dissipated Gorginov smiled. "You are not as superior as you think, Harry Potter. Avada Kedavra!"

Pulsating, sickly green light rushed towards him but with a flick of his wrist one the many pieces of rubble intercepted the curse of death.

She shook her head once more. "the killing curse? How utterly unimaginative. Though it does not come as a surprise to see you use an unforgivable. I believe it is how you manipulated France, Spain and Germany into declaring war all through Europe is it not? Imperio, such a foul curse, did you hear your wand cry the first time you imperioed another human? Or was your wand already corrupted by the unnatural magic that you claimed as your own?" She asked. "With your death the Imperius curse you've placed on those head of states will vanish and I'll be able to use my own influence to clean up your mess."

Though she wanted to continue, her monologue was cut short as a thick purple mist spread from Gorginov's wand. "I have prided myself on my skills with the dark arts, I've been particularly skilled with the Imperius curse."

She didn't protect herself from the mist, it was the only truly unblockable unforgivable curse, it always managed to latch onto you somehow. However unlike its brother and sister, the Imperio could be broken. All you needed was a stronger will than the one who cast the curse.

Inhaling the smoke a voice came into her head. "Just drop the wand, you want to stop fighting and drop the wand. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could just rest and sleep without an open eye. Drop the wand and let someone else take care of it." The voice was, as it always was, tempting. But in her mind she was sovereign, she was master and no one else could even scratch at the wall of her will.

Raising her own want she fired a bright blue disarming spell at Sven. Who in surprise was too slow to block it. "Like you I also have a certain talent, the expeliarmus curse has been a faithful friend of mine, never failed me actually." The ground between her and Sven had been utterly destroyed in their battle. With quick accio she summoned the Oleander wand, it flew towards her and she grasped it with her free hand. "Don't cry… I have ended the abuse you've been under." She stroke the fourteen inch wand as if it was a baby. "Dragon heartstring core inside Oleander wood. Designed by Gregorovich if I am not mistaken. Quite inflexible; A strong wand for those with a strong will. It is too bad that you used its power to only further your own goals while neglecting to help those who could use a strong wand to defend them." She placed the wand on the ground before using a quick Incendio and ending its cries.

"Your wand deserved to rest in peace, you will not meet a fate as kind as that, Sven Gorginov. By the power invested in me as Master of Death, Keeper of the Scale and Supreme High Sorcerer I end your reign of terror and cast you into the eighth ring of hell." The elder wand buzzed with magic as flames shot out of the ground. The flames took hold of the defeated brute, charred hands keeping their grip on the violently struggling man. She watched as his soul was ripped from his body while he made sickening sounds of anguish. He was dragged down, down into hell while the wailing sound of his soul would haunt her for the rest of her life.

As the fire died out and Gorginov's soul had left this plain of existence she sighed and turned around to face a being cloaked in what seemed like tattered black silk.

"It has been a long time since you've thrown someone into the abyss of hell." It said, the voice was both male and female, layered over each other. "Does this mean you've decided to stop fighting your own fate as my master?" The voices sounded almost loving, almost caring but the chill that went through her spine warned her that it was anything but.

"It means I did what needed to be done. I vanquish evil, I keep the balance as you've instructed me so many times to do. There is only so much pain one can feel while turning a blind eye to the culprit." Already her heart felt lighter with the darkness that was Gorginov gone.

"I see." Death said. Somehow she wasn't even shocked at his presence. "I am glad you are my master." A part of its cloak caressed her cheek and she shivered.

"I know you are." She said while Death faded away.

"Take good care of my gifts and I'll always be with you." The voice said before vanishing from view entirely.

"That is what I fear the most. You'll always be with me." She shuddered. The elder wand felt sated. But it had one more job to do, something to prove it couldn't only destroy and harm. With a loose counter clockwise corkscrew and a whispered "Reparo Maxima" the walls, ceiling and floor were repaired, not leaving behind a single sign of the battle that had just been fought.

With a crack she was gone, leaving behind the lifeless body of Europe's most recent tyrant.

But as she disappeared she found herself falling through the clouds again, however she wasn't falling down, she was falling up, it was an entirely new feeling she experienced just now. She got pulled by gravity through the clouds into the clear part of her mind.

She opened her eyes as soon as she could and found herself sitting in front of a broken mirror. The reflection took some getting used to again but after a few seconds she regained her sense of self. "Uchiha Haru, to think your protection of your memories went as far as to create fake memories… you were truly something special. But don't worry, in due time I'll have filtered through all of them and be supreme ruler of not only body but also mind."

* * *

><p>Giggling over his little orange book Hatake Kakashi walked past the walls of the Uchiha district. It was already late at night and as Kakashi always did he had checked up on his students and they were all fine, Yuugi had just been done training with her grandmother in her family dojo and was walking towards her apartment, he had seen her enter and knew she was well.<p>

Koh had been eating dinner with his father and mother; nothing special so Kakashi had left to spy on his smallest chuunin Haru.

Haru had been sitting in front of a broken mirror for a while with his eyes closed before he got up and tucked himself in.

Knowing all his students were safe and sound asleep Kakashi had time for himself; thus he was reading "Icha Icha Paradise; Secret Lovers" Just now the most interesting thing had happened, the female main character had poured whipped cream over her well-developed chest while her lover, the feudal lords son, pressed himself on her in insatiable hunger. It was a forbidden love, and certainly they would be caught by his mother, alas as soon as the door opened Kakashi heard a coughing sound behind him.

Putting away his small delight Kakashi turned around. There stood a man that not unlike himself had only one visible eye. "Ah, good evening sir." He said.

"A good evening indeed, Hatake." Danzo said with a gruff sounding voice. "Walk with an old man if you will." The old war hawk asked, though commanded was a better suiting word.

"Of course sir." Kakashi waited for Danzo to catch up with him before he walked with the man. It was a rare occurrence for Shimura Danzo to talk to him, it was an even rarer phenomenon for the elder to seek him out like this 'What is it you want from me?' Kakashi wondered.

It took almost a minute before the old man interrupted the awkward silence. "Sometimes I wonder if we, old people, have too much influence in this village." Danzo started off, a surprising opening for a conversation… "While the addition of our experience and wisdom is without a doubt invaluable to the collective force of Konoha. I can't but feel a wariness in my bones. If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of war and destruction. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, peaceful, not just as it looked when we got through with it."

Kakashi nodded, not sure where Danzo was coming from. 'What is he aiming at?'

Danzo's cane kept a clean rhythm while connecting with the ground each step. "You see Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations. In Konoha there are currently people who are carrying on wars that should've died out decades ago. I am sure you know of whom I speak." Danzo didn't wait for Kakashi to respond or even acknowledge that he had heard him. "We have come to a turning point in the road of our history. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children's children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unvigilant to the dangers of old sores and the greed that comes with power."

Kakashi's only visible eyebrow showed that he was frowning. "I am unsure of what your words mean, sir?"

The cane stopped his rhythm as Danzo turned to face him. "Old age is far more than white hair, wrinkles, the feeling that it is too late and the game finished, that the stage belongs to the rising generations. The true evil is not the weakening of the body, but the indifference of the soul and the willingness to deny the fact that time goes on without you, that perhaps your role has been played and it is time for our generation to accept that it doesn't need to quell the fires of youth in our overwhelming hunger to still be of importance. You are guiding youth, there will come a time when you shall have to confront the old to protect the will of fire; when that time comes, consider me there to help you make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we remember our forefathers. " Danzo looked gave him a pet on the shoulder and nodded. "Have a good night Hatake."

Kakashi stared at the man as he turned around and walked into the darkness.

"Well that was random." Kakashi was sure that Danzo had just spoken meaningful words to him, but he was vague and after a long day of hard work Kakashi couldn't be bothered to think about the musings of an old man.

And so it happened that Kakashi took out his little orange book, ready to continue reading what was bound to be a wonderful climax to a great story. However when he opened his book he noticed that the words held no story of eroticism but were something else entirely. Going through the pages, back to the first page he read, with a widened eye. 'File; 08121989: Project ROOTS'

"Oh my."

* * *

><p>It wasn't often that Hiruzen was surprised in his long tenure as Hokage, he had seen it all, heard it all and done it all. However as a chuunin entered his office Hiruzen couldn't help himself but asking "What did you just say?"<p>

"The body of Shimekukuri Senju has been lost."

* * *

><p>She walked down the stairs, she hadn't eaten yet. Uchiha Haru had proven himself to be more of a challenge than she had previously thought possible. Perhaps a few decades ago she would have found the puzzle of his mind interesting but she had long ago lost her thirst for a challenge.<p>

Though she might have been given rewards for when she obeyed their commands, but it was still torture. It had killed a thing inside of her. She wasn't as strong-willed, as whole as when she had been captured by her own son. That betrayal had hurt, hurt so deep she would never recover. But then again, she was a ninja, she had no other choice but to recover.

Just a few seconds later she was nearly halfway down the stairs and smelled blood, lots of it. 'fuck, what's going on here?' she reached for a kunai and for the first time in her new body activated the Sharingan.

It was a strange sensation, yet it felt familiar. In one moment everything changed from being blurry to looking extremely crisp. She had never seen things this clear before. How had she ever seen anything else through such blurry sight?

The wooden floor, had splinters so miniscule she normally wouldn't have noticed but she saw them as clear as the stars in a night's sky. Tiny specks of dust flittered through the air, she could count them if she had wanted to; but there was something else she needed to do first; find out just what had entered her house all bloodied.

Emitting chakra from her feet she silenced her steps while she continued down the stairs. She could hear voices. Murmuring. Whoever it were they weren't even trying to be silent. As the voices neared they got louder, she recognized them. It were the voices of Haru's little big brother and someone else. The memories let themselves be waited on for a few seconds but they rushed to the front of her mind nonetheless: Naruto, enthusiastic, similar, Uzumaki. With the memories came feelings, something that hadn't been that strong before, she felt protective of the boy, the child meant a great deal to her. With an imaginative hammer she crushed those feelings, no use for feelings; she was on a mission and feelings only distracted.

Putting away her kunai and deactivating her Sharingan she walked towards them meeting them in the hallway. "Hey, Sasuke, Naruto. What happened with you two?"

Naruto looked roughed up, there were cuts all over him and his clothing and he was covered in dirt. Sasuke on the other hand just looked fatigued, but somewhat proud. "Sasuke and I.." Naruto started but Sasuke coughed and an annoyed Naruto rephrased. "Sasuke-sensei and I made a deal. He is teaching me how to walk on trees and I help him with target practice."

Shimekukuri raised her eyebrow. "I see… come here, I'll treat your wounds." She said planting herself on the couch, going through the motions of healing would help her access to skills much faster when she would really need them. There was no way that she offered this because she somehow genuinely felt protective towards the blonde, no way at all.

Naruto laughed nervously "No need for that, I heal fast, see?" he said pointing at his cheek where a scrape had indeed already healed. 'interesting.'

* * *

><p>She had made dinner, something she was fond of doing. At least Uchiha Haru was fond of cooking. She'd made miso ramen with garlic bread, and they've had enjoyed the meal. Naruto had left a few minutes after they had put the dishes in the sink, claiming that tomorrow would be a long day on the academy. Sasuke had agreed and went to bed not long after that.<p>

Following Sasuke's example she aswell went to her room. However as soon as the moonlight entered her room through the window she closed the curtains and made a bunshin of herself. The bunshin nodded at her and crept into the bed, feigning to be asleep.

Meanwhile she made her way out of her house, the district, the village without any of the guards noticing her.

Her feet moved her at speeds she was impressed with while she rushed herself through the woods that surrounded Konoha. It had been an eternity since she had ventured through these trees. She recognized some of them but long forgotten painful memories were locked away and so she refused to acknowledge their presence. She stopped as she heard the snapping of a twig no too far behind her.

She was on high alert, did someone follow her? She turned around to look for whomever made that sound. Her worries were for nothing as a honey brown colored squirrel took hold of a nut and rushed up the tree; ruffling the leafs. It was only an animal.

With a sigh she renewed her pace and jumped from branch to branch, her journey wouldn't take much longer; she was almost there.

As she entered a clearing, she looked around to see if there was absolutely no one nearby; it wouldn't do to reveal this place to anyone other than her and her employers.

She placed her left hand on the ground and took hold of a root of some sorts, she pulled it and with the pulling of the root she opened a hatchway. The creaking hatchway opened up to reveal a dusty stairway, with a confident stride she made her way down the dark stairs. Shadows consumed her after she closed the hatch.

* * *

><p>He followed her. She had almost found him out when a twig snapped under his weight but with quick thinking he had successfully kept her unknowing he was onto her.<p>

The shadows of the night clang to him as robes, he followed her into the dark underground space. He opened the hatchway silently, no sound escaped his careful escapade. Down the stairs he went and followed the woman disguised by the flesh of a child.

He could clearly hear her steps on the stone and was able to navigate through the labyrinth of stone pillars adorned with web cobs and dust. Before long her feet stopped and he was able to catch up to her fully.

The shadowy man observed the imposter carefully with one visible eye. She had walked all the way to a table with one scroll on it. From where he was he couldn't see what was written on it so he lowered his mask and used his other eye. The clarity that came with it made him tremble. He had investigated into this case thoroughly and his worst suspicions had been affirmed when the scroll held a total of thirty names, addresses and other interesting information to a bounty hunter, a killer, an assassin.

The parasite that currently inhabited the body had been given a hit list, the names on the list weren't as interesting as the person that had created the list in the first place. Whoever had created it was working on securing his own power within the village. There were a multitude of questions swirling through the man's mind the most important one being: Who would someone want three council members dead?

Suddenly fire erupted out of the imposter's mouth consuming the scroll. The man silently cursed in his head, he hadn't imprinted the last targets yet, that might prove to become a problem. For knowing who the targets were would help him find out who the source was, and if he found out who the source was, this play of puppets would finally come to an end.

* * *

><p>It had been almost two weeks since she had received her targets. She had gone on two separate missions with her old team, both missions were simply wasting her time. She had a more important mission to accomplish; the assassination of a select few within Konoha. The top priorities were three councilmembers.<p>

Apparently her employers wanted to push through a certain bill but were being stopped by the opposition; hence their death sentence. Shimekukuri didn't care much about the why or even who, she had killed enough people for her employers in the holding cells to become desensitized. They had been good for her and so she would be good for them. She had already mapped out her first target.

Her target was a man, forty-eight years. Hidesaburo Shōda, the man had a shop from which he sold finely decorated chopsticks, he had made his fortune in it. Shōda walked from his shop to his home each day after the shop closed. In the eleven days she had followed the man, he had always been met by his son of twenty-three unless said son was on a mission.

His son, whom would take his father's seat in the council- it was hereditary after all, was a shinobi, chuunin to be precise. The daily walk between the shop and the mans home was where she would strike on the day his son would be away on a mission, she had already asured his absence two days from now. Shōda would die a quick death, almost painless; all that was needed was one minute in a dark alley, no onlookers, a few metres of ninja wire and a bit of chakra.

* * *

><p>It had been a long stake out, her target had taken his time with the closing of the shop. But as he pulled down the shades and made his way to the door Shimekukuri felt something aking to adrenaline rush through her veins. She only had to kill thirty people before she could start enjoying her newly refound freedom.<p>

As the door closed she activated her Sharingan. The usually brightly shining street lanterns had taken an evening off. She had prepared this assassination perfectly; she would ambush him from behind, string him up, binding him, restricting his movements so that she could use a chakra scalpel and temporarily cut of his blood flow to the smaller brains with minimal effort. No one would ever even suspect foulplay, it would look like a simple heart attack.

Hiding in the branches of an old oak she could see her target while being assured that her presence couldn't be noticed by the man. Her body was small and weighed next to nothing, in other words perfect to maneuver with between the trees. Shoda's shoes left imprints on the soft ground, and while that on itself was nothing special Shimekukuri noticed that the shoes were different than they had been the days that she'd observed him. Her Sharingan enhanced sight allowed her to see exactly how Shoda was going to walk, where every finger would be in the next moment.

It was with that extreme superiority of sight that she also saw that Hatake Kakashi made contact with the merchant. Their faces were being hidden by the back of her Jounin-sensei's head and while her eyes granted her perfect sight her ears didn't benefit the same sort of boost. She waited for Kakashi to leave but to her surprise he never did. The grey haired Jounin had walked all the way to the man's home, making her postpone her well thoughtout assassination until later.

'Why is he here? I've thoroughly researched Shoda's background, he and Hatake should have no reason to interact with eachother?' seeing Kakashi and Shoda both entering the latter man's home made Shimekukuri decide to entirely cancel this mission for tonight. "Seems like you escaped death for today, Hidesaburo." Deactivating her Sharingan she made herself dissapear in the shadows. But she would come back, the man was on her list after all.

* * *

><p>The years had been kind to Koharu, unlike many of her peers she had remained alive. She had lived a long time and as the saying goes, with time comes wisdom. And with wisdom, so had she found out, came weariness at the slow pace Konoha was losing its seat of power in the world.<p>

In the days before the Kyuubi debacle, Konoha was a village that wasn't afraid to bare her teeth. But ever since the death of the yellow flash, and the three dozen other well respected Jounin that had died in that monster's attack Konoha had lost her sharp edge.

No longer were the other nations afraid to approach her borders. No longer was Konoha the main source of order between the greater nations. Slowly through the years Kumo, Iwa, Kiri, Suna nibbled away at Konoha's power.

Her advice had fallen on deaf ears in the council. The Hokage had long turned a blind eye against the declining super power that was Konoha. Danzo in the past few years had turned away from her influence. The only one that still stood firmly in her corner was Komaru, but then again, he had always been in her corner.

There was a storm coming, a shift in power. And the villages that wouldn't be ready to seize the opportunity would be trampled upon by those that did. Her greatest fear was that Konoha would not be willing to roar, to bare her teeth and rip the hearts out of those that will come to oppose her.

It was for that reason, and that reason alone she had released the cleaner. The cleaner was indebted to her, would do her every bidding, would roar the loudest when the time was upon them, and would make sure that Konoha was still standing after the storm had passed.

"Are you sure we're doing the right thing Koharu? It is still not too late to call her back." Homura's low voice said. His tone was flat and didn't quite match his words. But his eyes looked as unsure as his words were "You must realize the dangers that the cleaner brings with her."

Koharu removed a hairpin out of her bun and snapped it in two, revealing a tiny scroll. "We're doing what needs to be done. I received this information yesterday, apparently Orochimaru has been cozying up to Sunagakure. If we don't pass these laws." She said handing over the small scroll. "Konoha will be the one that loses the next war. We need to be able to outvote Hiruzen on this matter, without certain sacrifices we can't protect this village from her enemies nor herself."

Done with reading the scroll Homura sighed. "I can't help but feeling like we're betraying the very village we're trying to protect. Releasing her, giving her access to such a prodigal body with that bloodline, how can we be sure that she won't turn on us?"

"We've gone over this, there is no need to doubt my preparations Komaru. I've invested decades into this project. It won't fail."

* * *

><p>The human psyche, when it was first crafted by hands long forgotten was merely one wild and urge driven thing. Its main task was to survive and multiply its own species, not at all different from the beasts around it. For a long time the human race didn't need anything else from its consciousness. However as so many things tend to do with time the human psyche changed. The psyche became aware of free will.<p>

It was when humans became aware that they not only could resist urges but that they could suppress them, some particular humans have even been believed to be capable of ascending the human psyche; letting go of all earthly feelings, of all urges. When ascended; these humans became masters of their own mind and were capable of partition.

In the wizarding culture of old Europe those people were called Master Occlumens. Certain people believed they could partition their mind in two, some suspected that with enough time and enough training a Master Occlumens could become capable enough in the arts of occluding that their minds were truly partitioned; that a legillimens could search through their mind but would never find the Master Occlumens' subconscious; would never find the control Centre of the humans being.

They were wrong; even a partitioned subconscious could be invaded, when magic became involved it was nigh impossible to resist the seductive offer that came with relinquishing control. Even Master Occlumens were not always capable of resisting the most Machiavellian one of the unforgivables.

Every human has evolved to such a level that their mind was partitioned in two; conscious and subconscious. The only difference being a Master occlumens made was that they could divide their conscious in two parts. A part easily seen and one part hidden behind a veil of darkness yet both couldn't escape the imperius curse.

It was for that reason that Death forged a third consciousness within the psyche of his master, for it wouldn't do for Death's master to become a slave to someone else's whims. And thus the day that Death's master was acknowledged he got access to the paramount consciousness. The highest form of consciousness that reigns over body, mind and soul.

* * *

><p>Shimekukuri was sitting on the edge of the Hokage mountain, below her was the village she had once helped build. But as the times had changed so had she, slowly but surely she would destroy Konoha or perhaps just rule it; not today, not this year perhaps not even this century. Time was not of the essence. It had been two days since Hatake Kakashi had ruined her mission to assassinate Shoda, it made her doubt the achievability of her mission without getting caught. To kill so many high standing Konoha residents would certainly be risky. Especially since she had to kill them all within the next three months.<p>

She had targeted Shoda first because he was the one most easily taken care off, a man his age would not fall under suspicion if he had a heart attack. But some of the targets aren't that old or a civilian. There were shinobi on that list, high ranked clansmen that would be able to fend her off if she wasn't perfect in the execution of her plans. Aside from that; someone would undoubtly find it suspicious that three of the nine clan leaders would do within a three month time span.

No the current time frame could only backfire on her. To kill so many people in less than three months without rousing suspicion? That was… was… a set up! "How could I be so blind?" Shimekukuri sighed as a short flash of anger made way for disappointment in her confidents. She had trusted them, they had freed her and she had thought that they would have her back as long as she was useful to them. "Backstabbers, I will end you." A cruel smile danced on her lips as she erected herself to her full height. "My revenge shall be sweet. Sweet as blood."

* * *

><p>Shimekukuri walked into the Hokage tower with confident strides. The guards had let her in without trouble; she looked like a shinobi from Konoha after all. She knew this body held secrets; and in time she would find them all out; she hadn't been able to access the Mangekyou Sharingan for example but for what she was planning she wouldn't need to, killing her two co-conspirers wouldn't be too difficult.<p>

It wasn't the first time Shimekukuri had been betrayed, after all it had been her own two sons that had locked her up for a hundred years. Left her to rot in a cell underground, left her to die, too cowardly to kill their own sister's daughter.

It didn't take long before she found the elder's chambers. She calmed herself before she walked in, it wouldn't do to kill them before they explained themselves, she wanted answers and they would give it to her willingly or by force. As she opened the door two sets of eyes took their target on her.

Shimekukuri turned to close the door, showing her back to the two politicians. Het shirt had a large Uchiha fan on the back of it, it would be a little reminder of just who had walked in.

The office wasn't anything special, on the wall hang only two paintings, one of Homura, Hiruzen and Koharu of them in their early fifties, all wearing robes befitting of their position of power within Konoha. The other painting was of the three of them as genin, together with the Second Hokage. Shimekukuri ground her teeth as she saw his face. That picture had been after she'd been locked away. Two desks with neatly packed stacks of papers on them and a paper bin on each side of the desks. It looked almost too clean; as if no one had touched the room after someone had organized everything.

"Uchiha Haru, what brings you to our office?" Homura asked. "Is there something you need to report to us?"

She walked toward them, her hands in her pockets. "That depends.' She said, her voice as low as was possible for a six year old. The questioning looks she received angered her, they were planning on betraying her! And they dare look her into the eye? As if she was gullible enough to believe their traitorous words.

"Depends on what?" Koharu cut in.

"On why you thought I wouldn't figure out that you would betray me!" she bit back, her left eye twitching. "Tasking me with the murder of thirty high ranking Konoha inhabitants, without raising suspicion? What kind of fool do you take me for? I may currently look like a six year old but that doesn't mean I have the mind of one!"

Koharu's facial features relaxed. "You shouldn't have worried about that… We are going to blame someone else for the killings. Beside us there is one more person who has the resources and motive to liquidate these certain targets. And with both Homura and I at the steering wheel of Konoha we can easily keep you out of the way during the investigation."

"Aside from that, Hiruzen Sarutobi seems to favor the young Uchiha, having more than once turned a blind eye to his antics." Homaru added. "It is not without reason that we fed you this specific specimen."

Shimekukuri relaxed slightly, perhaps she had overreacted. The possibility that she had grown somewhat paranoid after being imprisoned and tortured for such a long time was not unlikely. "Perhaps. But these words alone are not enough to extinguish my concerns about this mission." Her hand went through her hair, trying to pull back the plucks that irritated her forehead.

"We have always protected you, and shall continue to do so. Haven't we kept our promises to you? Fed you? Freed you?" Koharu walked towards her and placed her hand on her cheek. "You are important to us. Important to our vision of the future."

Shimekukuri couldn't deny the truth in those words and just nodded.

"There is no reason to doubt our integrity, We have and always will be there to keep you from falling into oblivion, don't forget that." Koharu wrapped her arms around her and hugged her.

A sudden feeling of victory emerged from within her and she wanted to cheer and jump, the doors she had just closed opened and Hatake Kakashi walked in, and she lost consciousness.

* * *

><p>Shimekukuri groaned. There was an abundance of light that tried to blind her even though her eyes were shut tight. She moved her hands before her eyes, trying to keep the light away only to find out that her hand were shackled and too heavy to move.<p>

"It seems you realize now, the position you are in." a voice said to her. She recognized that voice… she had used that voice recently.

"Uchiha Haru." She gritted through her teeth. "It seems I underestimated you."

With the sound of fingers snapping the light dimmed and Shimekukuri opened her eyes. She noticed right away that her eyesight was far from normal. It seemed damaged, the same it had been when she was in that cell.

"It seems that way yes." The boy standing in front of her said. "Though to be honest, there was no way for you to truly measure the extents to which my mind has grown."

"I never left my cell, did I? I never escaped your Tsukuyomi." Shimekukuri cursed the Uchiha in silence. To have been beaten so thoroughly. To think that this boy had been able to make her believe she had somehow taken control of his body.

Haru smiled. "Actually, you entirely succeeded in overcoming my genjutsu. I must confess to have been beaten in that department." Snapping his fingers once more the light that had surrounded them up to then vanished entirely and revealed an enormous stone castle with an iron fence around it. With another snap her shackles disappeared and a third snap restored her body to the point where she could stand up to the full extent of her length.

"So I did succeed in defeating you? Than why are you still here?" she asked. Despite the fact that her body felt reenergized she couldn't muster the strength to do anything other than talk.

The smile that was on the boy's face grew wider. "Whatever gave you the idea that you defeated me?"

"But I was in control of everything, your chakra, your body, your Sharingan!"

"But not my memories, were you?" he said, almost as if he felt sorry for her.

"I was working on that…" slowly her body regained its strength, perhaps if she could find out how he had somehow regained control she could remedy it. She just needed time to stall him.

"Yes you were, I found your attempts to access my memories truly captivating. I actually helped you with them, gave you la lot of memories on a silver platter as soon as you actually needed them to keep up your façade." Haru turned around "Follow me, you should have regained enough control to do that by now."

Shimekukuri did as he commanded; it appeared that a sneak attack wouldn't work after all, if he already knew she was slowly regaining her strength… They walked towards the castle, her bare feet tickled by the greenest grass she had ever seen. "Where are we?" she asked. "This doesn't feel like a genjutsu, but it doesn't feel real either."

"We are entering the one place where I feel truly at home." He opened the iron fence with a wave of his hand. "Welcome to Hogwarts Castle, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, home to Harry Potter's soul."

'Harry Potter' the name sounded familiar. They walked for a while without trading words. Without sound the castle, Hogwarts, felt even more impressive. They passed a large lake which Haru commented was "the black lake" and that if she ventured too close a giant squid would probably want to play with her. The word didn't sound ominous but they sure felt that way. 'What kind of reality construct is this?' Shimekukuri wondered.

As they neared the castle doors Shimekukuri started wondering why exactly Uchiha wasn't rough housing her, he sure was capable of such a feat. She was certain that if he wanted he could behead without a thought. The wooden doors opened and Haru invited her in.

As impressive as the castle looked from the outside, it was nothing compared to the inside. There were hundreds if not thousands of portraits that adorned the walls, the ceiling, the ceiling was not there. There was just a beautiful azure blue sky.

"Impressive, isn't it?" the boy said, his pace slowed down. "I fell in love with this place the moment I saw it."

Shimekukuri couldn't help but agree. Despite the enourmessness of the castle it felt safe and homey. "Where are we really?" she asked, her curiosity no longer allowing itself to be suppressed.

"As I said earlier, we are in Hogwarts Castle. Though I am sure that's not the answer you want. Perhaps you should ask me 'What are we'." Haru looked at her expecting her to ask that question. Even though it didn't make much sense. When Shimekukuri remained silent, pondering on the meaning of that question, Haru answered his own question. "At the moment, both you and I are representatives of our will, our thoughts, and our souls."

"Souls?" She wondered out loud.

"Yes souls! Every human has one. Though I suspect I am the only one capable of manifesting them in this way. You want to know where you are, you first need to understand that we aren't actually anywhere. This" Haru said while his arms were in the air "this is merely a manifestation of my consciousness, you weren't able to withstand the purity of my soul so I changed the scenery for you."

"You sound like those monks, talking about souls." Shimekukuri suspected that the boy was speaking the truth. "What does a six year old boy know about such things, you don't make sense."

"Now now, Senju. Don't be fooled by appearances. You of all people should understand just how unimportant shells are." The boy snapped his fingers and changed from a young boy into a twenty-something year old boy clad in robes."

Shimekukuri needed to look twice before she understood just what had really happened. She had seen this person before. "So that memory was real?" she asked.

"Oh it was very real indeed."

"But how! It doesn't make sense, nothing makes sense! I was supposed to take you over, the seals worked perfectly; I had you defeated yet here you stand before me talking about souls and appearances!" Shimekukuri felt that she was losing control of her temper, she needed to calm down. She was in enemy territory and needed to tread with care. "Tell me the whole story instead of bits and pieces, I can't piece everything together. It doesn't make sense to me."

"You don't really deserve to have all the answers, Shimekukuri." Haru said darkly. His new appearance was a lot more imposing than his childlike body just a minute ago. "Before I tell you my story and explain just how you ended up like this, I want you to tell me your story."

"My story?" Shimekukuri asked in surprise. "Why would you want to know my story?"

The ever present smile on Haru's face widened even more while he aged a hundred years in just a second. "Because, child, I am curious." The words enthralled her into submission and before she even realized it she started talking.

"It was raining –"

* * *

><p>Drops of water fell down from the sky and her skin relished in the moist that drove away the dryness of the land of Wind. Her husband walked next to her asking if she was still fit to walk. "I'm fine, Hyu."<p>

Hyu and Shimekukuri had been lovers since the day they met just five years ago. She had only been fifteen years and Hyu had not been much older, yet they instantly knew that they belonged together. Within two years they had gotten their first child, a girl. They had been ecstatic even though the times were dangerous.

The world was at war, clans were at war with each other and all the while the rich were laughing at their minions slaughtering themselves in the name of their daimyo. The day before their baby girl had been born the Uchiha had once again attacked their family, no one had died but the camp they had made was destroyed, set a flame by a fire jutsu. Hyu had protected her and had been gravely wounded, but her uncle had saved him from death through medical jutsu.

These days were not different from those days. Though now she had not only herself and Hyu to look after but also two children her daughter Mito and her son Hashirama. A third child was already on his way, her uncle, Tobirama, had assured them it would be another healthy boy. Though times were rough, she had a loving family. And now that she was in the land of Fire again she felt great.

Hyu looked over his shoulder, Mito was sound asleep and Hashirama was pretending to be asleep as well. "It won't be long till he's born Shime." Hyu told her. "And when he's here, I have the perfect name for him." He got closer to her and whispered in her ear.

"That sounds like a great name. "she said. She felt truly content now that she was surrounded by the forest. She always felt connected to them, and they listened to her as much as she listened to them.

They were traveling towards the great Leaf Mountain. There she would be safe to give birth to her third child. The Senju clan was numerous, and while they were currently divided the great Leaf Mountain was their meeting place. The Senju elders were the ones who claimed Leaf Mountain as their own and had made Leaf Mountain into a fortress, yes they would be safe there.

"I love you Hyu." She said as she gave him a peck on the cheek. Hyu took her face in his hands and gave her a proper kiss. "I love you more."

Shimekukuri giggled, this was their ritual. "I love you most." She said before deepening the kiss.

It would take three days of walking through the rain with the horses pulling their wagon before they arrived at their destination.

They were met by the Senju patrols that recognized them immediately. "It seems the baby is due within weeks, right? Shime-Chan?" one of her older nieces, Tsunade, asked jovially. Tsunade had always been carefree, her red hair bundled in pig-tails and a huge grin on her face, though there were times when she was scary as well. Shimekukuri still remembered Tsunade chopping the head off a Samurai that had wanted to kill her when she was still a young child.

"Yes, Tobirama-sama said he is due somewhere next week, if all goes well."

"That's great! Well I'll be having patrol duty this month so I'm not around much, but I'll be sure to come by when he's born." Tsunade said before she vanished from sight.

"Just what we need." Hyu said annoyed. "More family visits."

Hyu had never liked Tsunade, saying that she was too much of a tomboy to be a proper wife to anyone, he often told her that if his brother hadn't married Tsunade, no one would've. "She means well, Hyu. Besides; it's not like we can do anything to stop her."

Hyu remained silent. And they walked on. The horses were tired and the children even more so. Staying at Leaf Mountain would do everyone good.

A week later Shimekukuri gave birth to her third child, second son, Senju Tobirama. All had gone well, the boy had ten toes and ten fingers. Two ears and the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen on a baby boy. But then again, they resembled Hyu's so how could they not have been?

With the pregnancy over Shimekukuri was once again ready for work. Unlike Hyu who was a simple woodworker, she had joined the family profession of being a shinobi. It was a dangerous occupation but one that every family member with chakra was ought to join. Shimekukuri even more so than others due to her, unusual ability.

The land of fire had always been home to Senju, they had lived there for at least twenty generations, dating back to the Sage of six paths himself. And once every few generations a Senju developed a certain bloodline, Mokuton. The forests in the land of fire weren't natural. They were as much a part of the Senju as she was. It wasn't a secret the Senju shared with any other clan, it was a gift that the rikudo sennin had bestowed upon the Senju; the gift of life.

Shimekukuri loved her ability to use her chakra to create life, it was the one thing she knew she was good at. She suspected that her oldest son was also capable of using the Mokuton bloodline, it was rare for two Mokuton users to be alive at the same time but not unheard of. Yet she wouldn't inform her clan of this at least not until her son was ready to leave the life of a child behind.

While Shimekukuri was blessed to be part of the Senju family and had been granted the highest honor within the clan; the power to make life. She was aware of the cost. She hadn't really lived as a child. The moment her father had found out that she was capable of using the tree-creation he had brought her to the Senju-elders to be taught. She had been a shinobi from the age of seven. She would spare her child that fate.

It was seven years later that the first horrible thing happened. The first thing that paved her way into the shadows of vengeance.

It had been night and the moon cycle had started anew and so it was the darkest night lit only by the stars. She was on patrol duty. Her children were probably trying to blackmail their father into letting them stay awake.

Her children, she loved them with all her heart and that was why she was currently still a Kunoichi, she would protect them and her husband from the rivaling clans. It had been quiet the past few months in the land of fire. Too quiet. The Senju elders had upped the patrols and Shimekukuri had been tasked to keep control of the forest and warn them if someone other than Senju dared to travel near their base.

It was the darkest night and so the trees were at their most useless state. And thus, so was Shimekukuri. She hadn't even noticed the bright red spinning eyes until they appeared in front of her. She reacted as fast as she could and warned the others through a light bomb but she was knocked out as soon as she had done so.

She woke up at dawn and realized instantly that her home had been attacked by Uchiha. She had rushed herself back home all around the mountain trees had sprouted with Uchiha hanging in them, gutted. She must've rushed by at least thirty people before she reached her own chambers. It was obscured by branches, but with a bit of chakra she got rid of them.

She opened the door to find a scene that had been too horrible to forget. In the middle of the room was her oldest son, he was catatonic. Mito, her oldest daughter was rocking Tobirama, the boy was crying. The room was filled with dead ninja, all of them having been pierced through by trees. Blood was splattered all across the room and none of her children had escaped the bloody paint. Their face, their clothes, their hair, their skin. Everything was soaked in blood.

There was something wrong, something utterly and horribly wrong about this. "Mito, what happened?" she asked, her voice steeled. It wouldn't do to give in to the urge to panic. She needed to be strong for her children.

Mito, who was still rocking a crying Tobirama, looked up. "They… They came in. But daddy said there was nothing here but him and his children. That they wouldn't find what they were looking for here." Mito's voice cracked. Shimekukuri placed her own hands on her daughter's shoulders and Mito continued. "They were yelling, and Daddy tried to punch one of them in the face when… when.. when they wanted us to come with them. And they... They THEY KILLED DADDY." Mito screamed.

For a moment the world seemed to stop. Hyu was dead?

"What happened next?" she asked, though she already knew the answer.

"Then Hashi, Hashi screamed, and he- he killed them all." She said looking at her brother. Hashirama just sat still in the middle of the room. His eyes open, not blinking. A look of horror sketched on his face. He was reliving every moment.

Anger boiled up in her, why hadn't anyone protected them? Why had her son have to kill those Uchiha? She picked Hashirama up pulled him close to her. "It's ok Hashirama. You've done the right thing, and performed above anyone's expectations. You've kept your brother and sister safe; that's more than anyone could ask of you." She whispered in his ear. He must've heard her because he hugged her back and she could feel him nod.

"It's time for you three to sleep. Tomorrow we will say farewell to your father." She said before she activated a sleeping genjutsu. All three of her children fell into a peaceful sleep.

Shimekukuri washed the blood out of their hair and off their body's. She scrubbed the walls and made the trees retreat into the ground. It was then that she found her husband and his killer. The Uchiha's sword that had pierced through her husband's heart was still in his hands. It was when she pulled the blade out of her husband that she allowed herself to cry.

The years after those she had to do it on her own, the family that hadn't protected her sons and daughter weren't allowed anywhere near them. She trained Hashirama and Tobirama to become shinobi like her. Her daughter started to resent her for her absence that night and they often had arguments, Shimekukuri blamed herself as well and took the verbal abuse of her daughter as her punishment.

Hashirama had become a delightful young man, popular too and strong, so very strong yet he was also still kind. "You are just like your father." She had said more than once when they were alone.

Tobirama wasn't much unlike his brother, but the poor boy was still haunted every new moon by nightmares of that night.

It wasn't until even Tobirama had become an adult that she returned to the Senju, she was sure that they could protect themselves now. Hashirama was hailed as a prodigy and within a few years had become a leader of the clan.

Shimekukuri, who had just turned thirty-eight, had been poisoned in a battle with a puppet master from Wind country. She had killed the puppet master, but the poison for some reason couldn't be countered by her own resources.

"Mother." Tobirama walked into her room. The look on his face told her that she probably looked worse than she felt. "We've send a team to Wind country, asking for one of the poison masters there to find a counter to your sickness."

Shimekukuri coughed up blood, which she wiped away with her sleeve. "My time is up, Tobi, it's ok. I've lived to see all three of you grow up. What more could a mother ask for?"

Tobirama had always been the softest of her three children and in moments like these it showed. "I still need you mother. Who else is going to tell Hashi to get a wife already?" he joked, a smile forming on his lips. His eyes were still sad though and it broke her heart.

"You'll do fine without me. I have raised you up well, didn't I?" she asked, though she knew that both her boys would be heartbroken if she parted with this world. "I haven't seen Mito yet. Could you ask her to come see me?" She asked. Her relationship with her daughter had only grown worse over the years, by now Mito resented her so thoroughly it bordered on hate. Tobirama averted his eyes from her. "She doesn't want to see me, even now?"

"I will ask her, implore her to see you mother. She owes you that much." Tobirama swiftly turned around and left her alone again.

A silent hour passed before Mito walked in. "Mito, it is good to see you." She said in a raspy voice.

"Hello, mother." Mito said her voice sounding cold. "It is also very good to see you."

Shimekukuri shuddered, when had her daughter turned so cold? "My time is almost up Mito. I wanted to say farewell, before all of my strength is drained from me."

Mito smirked. "How kind of you mother, to think of me at such a time. I feel touched."

Shimekukuri sighed. "Now is not the time for old grudges, Mito. I want to ask you something… I need you to look after your brothers. They might think of themselves as untouchable, but we both know that they're not. I need you to rein them in. You've always been the smartest of you three. That is my only request Mito."

"Oh mother, don't worry, I will look after them, I will look after them so much better than you ever did." Mito spat. "You know mother, I can see the light fading in your eyes, you have perhaps just a few more minutes. I want you to know why you died before you do."

Her eyes widened, what did Mito just say? "No, don't tell me…" she croaked.

"But yes, I have to. You let daddy die, YOU let daddy die and made a killer out of Hashi! For years I've tried to forgive you, but I couldn't. I tried to forgive Hashi for traumatizing Tobi, but I can't. I hired the puppet master to kill you mother, and soon Hashi will follow. And then, perhaps then Tobi will sleep soundly at night."

Shimekukuri couldn't believe what she just heard. Her own daughter wanted to kill her son… Mito was going to kill Hashirama! "You killing me I can forgive, but I cannot let you kill Hashirama, Mito; please see to reason, this is madness. Promise me you won't harm Hashirama, please." In her panic she found renewed strength to ask of her daughter these things.

Mito got to her knees, next to her and whispered into her ear "No, mother."

It was then that she felt her heart skip a beat and that her second horrible thing happened. It was as if a dam was opened and chakra rushed through her. She grabbed her own daughter by the throat as thick green branches slithered out of her skin and slid into Mito's. "No! I can't let you kill them!"

Mito was the only child of Shimekukuri who had not become a ninja and thus even at her mother's weakest she could not get away from her. It was only a minute later, a minute that Shimekukuri hadn't noticed passing that for some unexplainable reason Shimekukuri looked through her daughter's eyes at her own. The branches having disappeared and now just tiny holes were left in her skin. "What have I done?"

* * *

><p>"Your own daughter wanted to kill you?" Haru asked.<p>

"She nearly succeeded too." The woman said with pained eyes. "And the strange part is. I was ok with that. But she wanted to kill my boy, and that was unforgivable."

Haru looked at her with faraway eyes. "A mother's love, is the most powerful thing on earth." He shuddered. "But this doesn't explain to me why all of a sudden you were bent on taking over the world."

"Taking over the world?" Shimekukuri asked. "I never had plans to do such a thing. I used to be great, after having taken over my daughter I found out just how powerful the Mokuton bloodline is. The tree grows high in its first life, but it grows unmoving in its second."

Haru just looked at her. "What do you mean?'

"After I took over my daughter's body I found within myself the power to be unmoving, to not feel. I could kill a child without a second thought, I could lie without even considering the truth."

"I see." Haru said. "Did you find that stillness when you were visiting my body?" he asked, mirth apparent in his voice at his own choice of words.

It took her a moment but when she looked she decidedly shook no.

"Do you think that perhaps, there was a slight possibility that your daughters mind was not entirely healthy?" Haru offered. "Perhaps you weren't unmoving, but she was unable to actually care. You inhabited her mind, if she was capable of killing you with such coldness, perhaps it was her brain, her mind that was incapable of caring for others."

Shimekukuri swallowed.

"Please continue, what did you do after that, how did you end up with the elders?" Haru asked.

"Well After burying my own body Hashirama confronted me."

* * *

><p>It had been two weeks after she had killed her daughter, she had lived through all her memories as if they were her own. She had lived through the massacre that had resulted in the death of her husband and father. It was a confusing process to go through. But after a bit more than a week she could differentiate between her own and her daughter.<p>

It was a Sunday that her son, Hashirama, found her. He wore his battle armor and his face showed his anger. "Mito." He said in a voice that she hadn't heard out of him before. "What have you done?"

Shimekukuri had thought about this confrontation almost non-stop. It was a confrontation that would've happened sooner or later, but she knew that only with a lie would she be able to spare her sons. "I killed mother." She said, her voice unhinged. "I killed mother, the way she killed Daddy." And then she broke down. It wasn't as difficult as she had thought it would be. She had never before lied to her son like this, but it felt so easy now. To keep up her act she screamed, she cried, yelled profanities cursed at herself, kicked everything that came close and bit even herself. For now her sons would think her insane, she needed to protect them; this time from the truth. Their mother had become a monster.

Hashirama had locked her away in a cell, both of her boys would visit her from time to time, and while Hashirama just sat in silence next to her, hoping that she would say anything, Tobirama talked to her. Told her about his life and always before he left asked her where she had buried herself.

For almost sixty years she remained silent; she had been interrogated by countless of people, she had been moved from one cell to another. And on a most ordinary day or perhaps it was night, she wasn't sure anymore, a young woman, no a girl walked in with a pin in her hair.

The girl looked just like Mito did when she was younger, she had the same face, the same way of holding herself. It was to that woman Shimekukuri said something. "I am so sorry."

The woman looked at her, one of her eyebrows going up, it was that rising eyebrow that broke the spell; no longer did she resemble Mito but it didn't matter. For a split second she had seen her again. "You are sorry, what for?"

Shimekukuri took control of herself again and cracked a grin. "I am sorry, I don't know your name." her chained arms didn't allow her a lot of movement but she placed them on the table and started playing with her thumbs. "I must look awful by now, don't I? My hair is a mess, it hasn't been combed for such a long time."

The woman's eyebrow slowly went back to where it belonged "My name is Koharu."

"Koharu…" Shimekukuri said, mimicking the tone of the woman in front of her. "Koharu, you're pretty." She said. "Tell me, do my brothers still live? I haven't seen them for at least a decade." Her voice was smooth despite not having been in use for such a long time.

"There are not a lot of Senju left, Mito." Koharu said, sounding sincerely sorry for her. "Your niece has become a Jounin though. Her name is Tsunade."

Shimekukuri's face lightened up at hearing that name, that name belonged to good times. "Tsunade. What is the color of her hair?" she asked, hoping it was red. She had always liked Tsunade's red hair.

Koharu blinked twice "Blonde."

"Pity." She said sulkily.

"I am here to ask you some questions, Mito." Shimekukuri could see that the girl thought she actually could get her to talk about 'that'.

"You're not the first to come here to question me, the last guy that came didn't get his answers. Not when he tortured me, not when he sweet-talked me, not when he pleaded with me." She stopped playing with her thumbs and intertwined her fingers. "What makes you so special that you think I will answer your questions?" a few seconds past in which it was silent before Shimekukuri added. "Ko- ha- ru."

Koharu stood up and walked away in silence. As the door closed Shimekukuri laughed. 'Now, isn't this one interesting?'

She didn't see Koharu for a week or perhaps longer but when the girl returned Shimekukuri was lying on her bed. "Ah, you've come back after all. Was starting to think you'd given up on me."

Koharu sat in the chair next to the table. "How are you feeling today, Mito?"

"I am feeling old." She answered. "Old and imprisoned."

Koharu let loose a small laugh before she regained her composure. "They often say that the truth can set you free, I believe it might also hold true in your situation."

Silence followed that comment.

Half an hour later Koharu stood up once more, pushed back the chair and left, leaving Shimekukuri alone again.

For months these interactions went on, always ending with Koharu leaving without an answer. Until the interrogations by Koharu stopped altogether.

Years went by in which Shimekukuri had to deal with people that weren't as kind as Koharu. Until the day came that Koharu visited again. The young girl had changed into a stern looking woman, no longer just one pin in her hair but two. There were lines engraved in her face and the kind eyes she used to have had been replaced by eyes that had seen a lot more.

"Koharu." Shimekukuri greeted. "It has been a long time."

Koharu sat down in the same chair she had years ago. "Indeed, a long time indeed."

Silence once again took hold of the room. This time however Koharu broke it. "Time has not treated you well." Shimekukuri grinned "Neither has the T and I department."

Shimekukuri's interest was piqued. "Not even time can take away my good looks, Koharu."

"Perhaps. But I believe I have a proposition for you that you will find most, profitable."

* * *

><p>Shimekukuri let out a laugh. "And then she told me that my living arrangements could be improved on the days no one was watching if I killed the people she wanted dead."<p>

"And you agreed?" Haru asked, his tone quizitive.

"Oh not the first time, not even the seventh time. I said yes when she told me just who she wanted dead."

"And who, if I may ask, did she want dead?"

"A boy by the name of Orochimaru. She told me that he was plotting to kill my only descendent left. How could I say no to that?" Shimekukuri looked down. "I had risked everything to safe my children, I had to protect my granddaughter as well."

"But Orochimaru still lives… you failed to kill him." Haru's appearance changing from an old man into a young boy. "Orochimaru, how did he get away from you?"

Shimekukuri let out a guttural laugh. "That boy had ventured so far into the forbidden arts that I am surprised he still looked somewhat human when he left my cell."

* * *

><p>Orochimaru walked into her cell, this was the boy she was supposed to kill. He didn't look like much. Pasty white skin, slick black hair and slitted eyes.<p>

"So, another child comes to interrogate me?" Shimekukuri asked. "Or have you come here to entertain my more basic needs?"

The boy just stood passively against wall. "I have a few questions you will answer before I can continue my own work."

"Well come, sit down; let's have some tea and chit chat." Shimekukuri said standing up and sitting at the desk.

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed but he sat on the chair right in front of Shimekukuri anyways. "So, what do you want to know? I don't often get visited anymore by some of the more senior shinobi. These days it is just the rookies wanting to prove their worth by cracking me."

"Where have you hid her body?' Orochimaru asked, his face inching closer to hers.

"I can't tell you that, it's a secret!" Shimekukuri taunted. "I can tell you something else though." She said as her chakra, for the first time since her body switch was ready to kill. "You won't get out of here alive."

Shimekukuri may have been imprisoned for a long time but her chakra was as destructive as ever, her hair changed into vines that latched onto Orochimaru, her arms were covered in ever growing wood. And so she started to strangle the life out of Orochimaru.

Though just seconds into the strangulation Orochimaru somehow dispersed into goo and appeared behind her. A snake coming out of his sleeve. "I didn't think anyone other than the first had the Mokuton bloodline." He said, his tongue somehow licking her neck. "To think such a treasure was hidden in the undergrounds of Konoha."

Shimekukuri cursed at her own inability to do something. "By now you should feel the poison numbing you. Taking away your motoric skills. Now let's see just what your secrets are."

It took seven hours before Orochimaru had stopped cutting her to pieces, stopped taking samples and butchering her body. Shimekukuri wasn't sure if she would survive this ordeal if he just left her there.

Orochimaru leaned over her, looking her straight into the eyes. "Thank you, Mito-san. You've been a most enlightening subject, but now we must say goodbye. I believe you, as unfortunate as it is, died during the interrogation." He said while slowly he placed his hands around her throat. "Such a shame really."

Shimekukuri panicked, her oxygen supply was slowly being taken away and there was nothing she could do! She had nearly lost consciousness when her chakra spiked. Somehow her chakra erupted from her body in branches and vines that took hold of Orochimaru. Her mind was already transferring to him, she was going to take him over, the same way she had taken over her daughter Mito.

However unlike with Mito she ended up lying on her bed in her own body. Orochimaru was bandaging her up. "I see you're awake once more."

Shimekukuri tried blinking her eyes, but they felt heavy. "Don't try to talk or move, you've exerted yourself to much to do anything other than live. It was most kind of you to show me that little trick. Transferring your essence into me to survive. It is something I've been trying to find a way to do for some time now. You've answered a vital question of mine and for that I am thankful."

Shimekukuri tried to swallow but her throat was swollen and she hurt too much to even attempt it. "It is for that reason that I've decided to let you live. Senju."

Orochimaru turned around and left but not before giving her one last look. "Perhaps in a few centuries or sooner we will see each other again. We've got time to spare after all." Ku ku ku.

* * *

><p>Haru couldn't believe what he was hearing. Orochimaru had learned from this woman that despicable immortality jutsu of his? "You realize that you are too dangerous to keep alive don't you?"<p>

Shimekukuri's stare was blank.

"If Orochimaru somehow got his hands on you again he might be able to perfect his jutsu." Haru said, more to himself than to the woman sitting in front of him.

"Perfecting?" she asked.

Gravely Haru nodded. "Yes, Orochimaru is currently capable of leaving behind bits and pieces of his... essence… in other people. It is a most acidic jutsu and destroys the body of those he inhabits. If he were to research your jutsu more thoroughly, I am uncertain of just what he would be capable of."

"I see."

Haru took hold of her hand and took her with him further into the castle. "Will you go willingly or shall I have to end you by force?" he asked.

Shimekukuri's eyes narrowed. "I can't go yet. There are a few things I have yet to do."

"I cannot in good conscious allow you to roam the earth any longer Shimekukuri. You're too great of a risk." At seeing Shimekukuri's face and determination he sighed, "Tell me, what those things are and I'll consider them your last wishes."

"I need to know your real name first. Don't think you can fool me, I've been in your head far too long to no see that you don't see yourself as Uchiha Haru. First tell me who you really are."

Haru nodded and from one of his pockets appeared a thin wooden rod. A wand! The wand moved to his head and substracted a silvery string. "This is my very first memory." He said, letting the memory loose. "But it is not of this world, or te be more exact, not of the world where my body is currently in."

The silver string expanded in the blink of an eye and suddenly they were in a memory. A woman with red hair pulled a boy close to her chest and smiled at him. "Hello Harry." She said.

A brown haired man stood next to her, picking up a black haired man that had obviously fainted. "Harry, a good name." he said. "James wake up, your son is here."

The man's eyes opened wide and he regained his footing rushing to the bedside. "He has your eyes." He said.

"Hello, Harry James Potter, welcome home."

The memory slowly faded away.

Shimekukuri looked at the boy she now knew for sure was named Harry. "Harry, I ask you, I beg of you to do this one thing for me. Just one thing." She said holding his arms tightly by the sides. "I need you to kill Orochimaru. I need you to erase that vile creature of the earth." She looked Harry straight into his eyes. "He has done unforgivable things to the Senju, he has robed my son's grave, betrayed my granddaughter and who knows what more. Kill him and you can consider my last wish granted." She shook his arms. "Promise you'll do that!"

Harry placed his own hand on her shoulder, his green eyes darkening slightly. "I promise, Senju Shimekukuri, I shall kill Orochimaru."

"Then I will impart you with one last piece of information. The Uzumaki boy; he is a container." Shimekukuri warned him. "It is best to tread carefully around him."

Harry nodded. "I know of his burden, but just because he contains a demon doesn't mean he is a demon, I have it on good authority that being a container of something so wretched needs to be raised within a loving environment. And who's more loving than I?" he said with a cocky grin.

"Kill me." She said slackening he muscles. "Kill me before I change my mind."

It was just a second that past before Harry once again changed into an old robed man. "Oh dear, don't think of me as such a brute. Remember, right now you are nothing more than a representation of your soul, and thus I don't need to result to such a despicable act. The mere idea of being dead should do the trick for someone in your state." Harry guided her to a door deep within the castle.

"Beyond this door is an object known as the Veil. The veil is what separates the living souls from the dead. All you'll have to do is walk through it, and you may begin. "Harry paused to open the door revealing a beautiful summer garden with a stone arch on a hill, and smiled. "Your next great adventure."

* * *

><p>Koharu felt Shimekukuri's body fall limp in her arms the moment Hatake Kakashi walked in with a dozen Anbu behind him. Shimekukuri's limp body however soon returned to its rigid state.<p>

"Hello Kakashi-sensei." The small chuunin said while he backed away from the female elder, his eyes were only half open and he swayed on his feet. "Did all go well on your side? Because everything went perfectly smooth here!"

Hatake nodded and pulled a scroll out of his vest. "Koharu, Homura. By the law you are now under arrest for conspiring against the leaf." He said, motioning for the masked Anbu to take the two elders to their holding cells.

Both Koharu and Homura were shocked. "That's preposterous." Homura uttered. "Whatever kind of information you have cannot be valid, we did no such thing."

Kakashi opened the scroll and read out loud "Project ROOTS, Script 360, visitation of _Utatane Koharu_ – Mito Senju #1" Kakashi paused to look at the female elder. "Am I not correct in stating that you are this _Utatane Koharu_?" the Jounin didn't wait for her answer and continued. "In your report you write the following 'Subject has given verbal answers to various questions not related to her imprisonment, when murder of her mother came up subject closed off making further investigation at this point impossible without force. A seven day interval shall take place before I will continue this interrogation."

Koharu let out an undignified huff. "Those files were sealed after I became part of the council. There is no legitimate way anyone could've obtained them other than through the council or the Hokage to have obtained them. And you've done neither or I would have been informed."

"Perhaps we should have these Anbu take you in for questioning; Hatake." Added Homura. "Besides, these files mean nothing. You want to arrest us for a mission she did a few years ago? Take your suspicions elsewhere, they're unwarrented and unfounded here."

Kakashi didn't say anything while the Anbu shackled the elders. That was until a certain man showed up. "Danzo?"

"Hatake Kakashi, a job well done if I may say so myself." Danzo said standing in the doorway. "However it seems that this entire sherade is over. Anbu, release them. The allegations against both Homura and Koharu have been declared null and void. It was a simple mistake in the registration, which has been corrected by my own hand." Danzo's one eye was looking at each and every one of them. "Now, go; I am sure you have other things to do than sit around and dallying."

The Anbu hesitated but when Kakashi nodded in approval they left after releasing the two elders.

"I believe, Young Uchiha and Hatake that it is best if the two of you departed as well. I am sure you have questions but this concerns Konoha secrets that are way above your clearance; and yes that includes yours; Kakashi." Danzo said in a voice that didn't leave any room for arguments.

Danzo closed the door as both Kakashi and a obviously fatigued Haru left. "To think the day would come that I would have to keep you two out of prison. You realize that you owe me for this, don't you? I had to twist a lot of arms to keep you out of Ibiki's hold." A look of disgust washed over Danzo's face. "You owe me especially seeing as you wanted to frame me for each and every murder." Danzo's cane stomped the ground before Koharu could open her mouth to say anything. "The day will come that I shall ask for you to return this favor, when that happens I expect you to do as I request without a question. Until then; I hope you enjoy your freedom and think hard about your position in this village and how easily that position can be taken away."

Danzo made his way to the door but before he left he turned around. "I expect _her_ remains to be delivered to my office tomorrow at sunrise."

* * *

><p>Later that evening Kakashi entered Danzo's office. He was welcomed by a hand motioning for him to sit on the rather large chair directly into the center of the room. Danzo's face was hidden behind a thick book titled "Old Civilizations".<p>

"You played me." Kakashi said.

Danzo put down his book. His face set in stone the way it always was. "Played you?" he asked. "Anything but, Hatake." Danzo's eye nearly pierced through his own. "I believe I've taught the young Uchiha a very valuable lesson while making my opponents waste a truly unique and powerful card."

"You played with Uchiha Haru's life and with that of everyone in this village." Kakashi's own gaze darkened. "That boy, if he had truly lost control; who knows how much destruction that could've led to. You were a fool for setting this up!"

"But he didn't lose control. He was in control from the very beginning. And don't call me a fool. I had contingency plans for my contingency plans if my suspicions proved to be false. But in the end he performed even better than I could have hoped for."

Struck with sudden clarity Kakashi saw through the smokescreen Danzo had created with his scheming. "You had this planned from the start… Haru joining the T&I department, going through the course within record time, interrogating Mito just days after being introduced to the idea of the T&I department. You had this planned from A to Z." Kakashi said with a hint of disbelieve. "Just what are you hoping Haru will end up doing for you?"

Danzo leaned forward. "I've planned further than that, Kakashi. Who do you think made it possible for the young Uchiha to become so easily targeted by them? I have big plans for this boy; and for them to be realized Uchiha Haru needs to know everything, every dirty secret that this village holds. He needs to have the right mindset, the right enemies. And if it means that I risk his life than so be it. If he can't survive my plans, he was clearly not what I had expected from him. But don't worry Kakashi, I have eyes everywhere, and your own performance did not go unnoticed."

Kakashi gulped at hearing those words. "Uchiha Haru confided his plan to you while you took him to the hospital, his trust in you exceeds the trust he has put in me. You are important to him and thus you are important to me. I want you to prepare to for the Yondaimes legacy training. Uchiha Haru, and his team have improved greatly under your guidance, I expect for him to do so as well." Danzo picked up his book again and started reading.

Kakashi understood the hint he had just been given and his mind reeled at just how big Danzo's web was, though he was unsure of just where Danzo's web started and had no clue as to where it ended Kakashi knew that he would have to be twice as watchful over his students if what he suspected was true. He left with a feeling of utter doom in his stomach weary of just what the future held for them.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong>

**Mne pohui**- means I don't give a fuck.

**No boring Author Notes this time; I believe you've read more than enough of my musings so far. Instead I want you to read this story: Game of Champions by . It is one of the best stories I've ever had the pleasure of reading, and I am not satisfied with how much attention, or the lack there of, it has gotten thus far, so read it and tell me and its writer what you thought of it.**

**Next chapters should focus more on the team. And yes that means we will finally see those two again! Did you miss them?**

**P.S.**

**To the readers that didn't understand why this arc had to happen; do you understand now? I like to believe this chapter revealed quite a bit.**


	29. Harvesting under the frozen sun part 1

**AN: New chapter! and though I know it has taken a while the next two chapters have been written and will be posted once they've been approved by Lexandria, the most awesome Beta!**

**We continue the story just a few days after the whole Shimekukuri debacle, And yes that means Shimekukuri is really gone. We won't be seeing her anymore. Focus is mainly on the three members of team 12 and Kakashi. I'm trying to flesh them out a bit more. Have fun reading this chapter and tell me what you thought of it.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 28 : Harvesting under the frozen sun part 1<strong>

Li Rukia was staring outside of her window. It was a dark outside, the moon and stars hidden by thick clouds making the snow falling down hardly noticeable, it was nearly pitch black. Behind her she could hear feathers ruffle, in the corner of the room she was now standing in was a messenger hawk.

She was one of a select few in her town that had access to one of these birds, being the daughter of a rich business man and Daimyo had its perks; though currently the disadvantages far outweighed the positives. "Kinki." Rukia said as she caressed the bird. "Another one didn't come home this morning… I need you to deliver this." She tied a scroll to one of the bird's talons "Bring it to Konoha, fast."

Rukia opened the window inviting the cold wind and snow inside and let the messenger hawk fly out. "Hurry, Kinki; I don't know how much longer this can go on." Rukia quickly closed the window when she noticed a shinobi entering her street. She quickly obscured herself by pulling the blinds down. For now she was safe.

* * *

><p>"A long time ago; earlier in time than even the creation of modern jutsu there lived a queen. Alone she ruled over the frosted lands and alone she lived in it. The Queen had hair black as coal, lips red as blood a skin so fair it seemed otherworldly and eyes as bright as the snow she was surrounded by, everything was perfect but there was no one there to admire her beauty.<p>

"The queen was a child of the Frosted Lands born when a single ray of sunlight and a snowflake that had met each other on the first day of summer. Her existence was lonely, but she was never alone, the Frosted Lands were her company, it heeded her every call, fulfilled her every need and placated every desire. Under the rule of the Queen the Frosted Lands remained peaceful as no other humans entered and sought destruction; as was their nature.

"But what meant peace to a Queen who had no one to share that serenity with? As the years went by and the Queen sat in her throne, the coldness of the Frosted Lands had slowly been taking over her heart. And while the Frosted Lands still knew not of the barbarity that plagued the other lands, it had grown more unforgiving. Not much survived the cold summers and even less made it through the frostbitten winters.

"As more and more flowers did not awake from their slumber and animals died, the Queen was visited by her father in the form of a great snow owl. He spoke to her and asked why she had grown so cold. Did she not have everything her heart desired, he had asked? Did she not have all the riches the frozen lands could offer her? Did she not have the warmth of her mother whenever she wanted?

"The Queen looked down from up her throne to the owl and shed a tear. Her father was the winter; how could someone like him understand how lonely she felt? She explained to him that her eternal life, her unparalleled beauty, her vast riches meant nothing if she had no one to share it with. She told him that slowly her love for the Frosted Lands had turned to bitter feelings of loneliness and that she wanted to leave, wanted to find a human companion.

"Her father hooted in anger as the winds started to rush around them, shaving away at the ice palace. He had given her everything a Queen could ask for. He had made her a palace, gave her beauty unparalleled, servants to heed her every call, a land to rule over, but his daughter wanted more? Did she not see the savages that humans were? Did she not see that only her lands were peaceful, that only her lands were not smeared with blood?

"In his anger her father stripped from her the beauty of her flesh, denied her the riches of his lands, with his talons he picked her up by the shoulders and flew her to the borders of the Frozen Lands. Only there did he release his grip and told her in harsh words that if she could not see the value of being a Queen, daughter of Winter and Sun, if she was so desperate to join the humans she longed for: than so be it. Eternal life was stripped away from her and she collapsed, down on the ground as a mere human.

"As her father left the clouds broke open and her mother enveloped her in a warmth she hadn't felt since she had turned bitter. Her mother cried for her but was unable to undo what her father had done. After all, while she had given life her father had given her everything else. The queen asked her mother if there was nothing she could do to ease her punishment. For a while her mother said nothing until she offered that there was one thing she could do. And so the queen was told that when the day came where she could see without her eyes the value of life her mother would bestow upon the thing she loved the most a precious gift. "

Yuugi poked the campfire with a stick causing it to erupt violently. Haru lost his balance and fell backwards, a large scroll slipping out of his pockets that he immediately put back in while Kakashi stifled a laugh. Koh readjusted his sunglasses and turned his head to look at Yuugi. "Please go on."

While Haru tried to sit upright once more, Yuugi got on her feet and with a hushed voice continued. "The legends are not sure of how or when but when the Queen birthed her first son his eyes were as white as the Queen's. However, he could see more than anyone thought possible." Yuugi threw something in the fire turning it white "And so was born the Byakugan."

"The unlikelihood of this 'legend' is far greater than it being true." Koh stated. "It is more likely that these fables were spread by the Hyuuga ancestors to make their bloodline seem more ancient and greater than it actually was- just another bloodline limit. "

As Yuugi sat down as well Kakashi interrupted. "Actually, before the elemental nations were named as such there used to be a place called the Frozen Lands. Though I haven't heard of this queen it should be noted that every legend, or fable has a hidden truth in it."

"People should be more wary of legends. They have the tendency to be far more accurate than you could imagine." Harry added gravely. "But it was a nice campfire story Yuugi. Now it is my turn. How about a tale that every Uchiha knows, a tale that tells the story of how the moon came to be?"

"It sounds like a story well worth hearing; but it is time for me to explain why I have arranged for this lovely campfire." Kakashi said cracking his shoulder joints making Yuugi cringe. "It wasn't just for fun you know."

Koh nodded. "I figured as much, why? Because this is our first meeting since we've become chuunin. If what my father told me is correct you will announce that-"

"Don't go and spoil it all, Koh…"Kakashi sighed.

Haru let out a laugh while looking at Yuugi "Oh come on; we all know that it is almost time for our last mission as a four man cell."

Yuugi nodded "Yes, Kakashi-sensei. Though it was a true honor to be called your student. We are aware that it is time for our team to make a name for itself."

"Meh, you've all really grown, I guess you all really don't need silly old me." The grey haired Jounin sulkily let out. "But yeah, that's what it adds up to. Normally you would now be given a series of missions to find out which one of you would be the one to call the shots, who would become the team-captain. But considering the events that have taken place in the last few weeks." Here Kakashi, Koh and Yuugi looked at Haru. "I believe it is crystal clear that until further notice our very own Uchiha will become team-captain of this team."

Yuugi let out a sigh in defeat; she had really wanted to become team-captain. "Then congratulations are in order." Koh said holding out his right hand towards Haru. Knowing that if it wasn't her own teammate, one of her own friends that had usurped her rightful position in the team she probably would've thrown a temper tantrum the size of the valley of the end, Yuugi got up as well and gave her teammate a pat on his shoulder.

"Well deserved." She said, and found that she actually meant it.

Haru, with a grin as wide as his face, accepted the gestures of kindness. "Awesome, me being team captain! But let's get down to business, how much is the raise!?"

At that Kakashi folded his arms and gained a thoughtful look on his face. "Well, seeing as you're a chuunin team captain you'll get a raise of at least nothing."

Haru jumped in excitement until Kakashi's words seeped through. "Wait, what?"

"Being a team captain is an honor, but not an official rank recognized by the council. It is something that is a tradition, because it would be unfair if everyone had to fill out the papers and deal with the officials. Consider the position honorary, isn't it great?" Kakashi said with an eye smile.

Yuugi let out a laugh. "Oh, that's great! Harry, I am so happy for you!"

* * *

><p>Sitting in his office Sarutobi Hiruzen was going through the piles of paper with requests of the villagers and shinobi, most of the forms were in tripplicate but all needed to be read thoroughly just in case one of them differed from the others and he signed them without being aware of this. The consequences of such a thing could be catastrophic.<p>

There had been a reason he had assigned the next Hokage a little over a decade ago. The stress of boredom that came with the job was overwhelming even on the best of days. It couldn't be much longer that he could postpone giving away the hat. Hiruzen was well aware of this fact. The position of Hokage couldn't be trusted to him for much longer, he just wasn't as strong or as energetic as he used to be.

The current file he held was one crafted by the council. It was one he had been given annually since he had taken back his position. It was one in which the council made a list of shinobi they believed capable enough to replace him. He would have to go through each of the councils reasons before he could give his own verdict on the candidates. So far none of them had met the requirements he had set.

None of them had the right mind-set, none of them had the right skills, and none of them had the will of fire.

After disappointing the council once more with his decision, Hiruzen went through the forms requesting missions. Currently there were about twenty-nine missions that needed to be appointed to the right teams.

Picking up the first request with a mission for assassinating someone's father Hiruzen sighed. If it were up to him Konoha wouldn't do those kinds of missions anymore. However, they paid well and despite them being against his morals they were a part of the ninja curriculum. Sending out a messenger-nin he gave the mission to one of his most trusted Jounin, Hatake Kakashi, the man who had most recently been able to get three of his genin promoted in the chuunin exams. He was free now and had proven to be capable of killing someone without leaving behind a bloody mess that would need to be cleaned up. A quick, clean kill would suffice.

The second mission of that day was a request of a merchant that was in need of protection while traveling through the mountains with his convoy. A protection detail would be needed, at least a three cell team. Going through the rosters he searched for a team, perhaps a genin team… yes, a team with a Hyuuga in it that would be able to see the dangers ahead. Sending out another messenger team he requested for Team Gai to report in his office.

That was another time-eating thing. All genin teams were supposed to be informed by the Hokage in person of their mission so that he could keep track of their growth in person. It had been a rule he had instated himself, a rule he sometimes regretted as he got older. But alas, it was for the better for Konoha and so he would keep doing it.

Mission after mission was given away until he reached the last. An espionage mission. Looking over the piece of paper he found who'd requested it. A man by the name of Gatou wanted to know the secrets of one of his competitors in the land of Snow, wanted to know how his adversary was able to get the goods he wasn't able to find. It would be a B-ranked mission. A perfect mission for the newest chuunin team. And so he called for another messenger Nin to whom he gave the mission specifics. Just as the messenger left he heard a teenage boy's voice. "Ah Gai-sensei, another mission to fuel our fires of youth!"

Hiruzen let out a groan. Genin, why ever had he made the rule?

* * *

><p>The youngest Uchiha of the village was sparring with his brother, he was tired. He had stayed up most of the night working on a special seal. It was an idea he had gotten after Shimekukuri had warned him of Naruto's burden. Despite Harry's tiredness his senses were as sharp as ever and even though Sasuke had been more motivated the last few days to improve than ever before, Harry was still able to counter every hit and kick. In a week or three the academy was going to promote his brother to genin, and it gave Harry mixed feelings.<p>

Harry was unsure of how he felt about his brother becoming a full-fledged ninja. The real world was dangerous and Sasuke was not nearly as ready as Harry was himself when he started out. Sasuke was still naïve about the workings of the world, the boy was only eleven years old. When Harry had been eleven years old he had lived in a cupboard under the stairs and his biggest problem had been Dudley. Sasuke would be facing off against trained killers and psychopaths.

Sasuke was still too soft, he would need guidance. If he was allowed to, he wanted to be the one to take Sasuke by his hand and slowly, gradually show him the world as his Jounin sensei. But he was only a chuunin, a team captain yes, but still only a chuunin. What if Sasuke was put in a team with a rookie Jounin like that Yuuhi Kurenai he had seen last week? That woman would never be able to protect his brother the way Sasuke needed to be protected. Orochimaru was still at large and Harry was sure that as soon as he saw the chance he would go after Sasuke and his eyes.

Harry wondered how his parents, Fugakaku and Mikoto had been able to allow their sons to become ninja at such young ages? Perhaps you needed to be of this world to be so willing to let your children face off with the dangers that lurk in the dark.

Harry, despite sparring with Sasuke and thinking about the craziness of Konoha to let children become soldiers, noticed a Kunoichi hiding in the trees. "Sasuke, our training is over. Go take a shower."

Sasuke looked at him, ready to argue but Harry cut him off before he could vocalize his protest. "Now, Sasuke."

Sasuke nodded and made his way to the shower while Harry motioned for the hidden ninja to come out. "Hello, messenger." Harry said politely.

"Good morning, Uchiha Haru." The girl said in return. Searching through her jacket she procured a scroll. "This is for Uchiha Haru, from the third Hokage. Good day." After placing the scroll in Harry's hands, she disappeared leaving behind twirling leaves. 'I really want to learn that shunshin…' Harry thought before opening the scroll.

* * *

><p>Yuugi was taking a bath. The water was steaming and the soap was bubbling, just the way she liked it. With a soft yellow sponge she cleaned herself. The sweat she had from that morning's work out was being scrubbed off and soon her pale skin would be as good as new, smelling like a rose instead of dirt.<p>

This afternoon she had planned to visit her mother's grave with her grandmother. It was something they did each year on her mother's death day. They would be dressed in black kimonos and lay a single white rose on the gravestone.

After drying herself off with her towel her grandmother walked in "Yuugi, there is a young man with unruly hair waiting for you outside the gates."

Yuugi sighed. She knew who her grandmother meant. "Thank you, grandmother. It seems like I won't be there this afternoon. Please accept my apologies, I will visit her as soon as I return." Her grandmother laid a hand on the side of her face and nodded.

Yuugi rushed to put on her clothes and pack for the mission they would surely receive. After two minutes she met her teammate outside of the gates. "Hello Harry."

"Hey, Yuugi. Sorry to interrupt your day like this but something" he held up a scroll "has come up that we have to take care of. I will inform you of the specifics as soon as we're on our way, for now I need you to pack for at least a month-long mission. We will meet in thirty minutes at the gates, don't be late." Harry said, and without waiting for a reply, popped away.

"As hasty as ever." Yuugi muttered before she went back to the clan compound, perhaps there was time to visit her mother after all.

* * *

><p>Koh was sitting under a tree hiding from the sun. He wasn't just sitting there though. After all, spending time just sitting was wasting time. No Koh was training, he had sent out his bugs around Konoha and was trying to map it out as accurately as possible by using his bugs as land marks. It wasn't a chakra intensive exercise or even difficult to do physically. But mentally it was extremely taxing. The strain of getting seventy thousand updates of locations every second for an hour long was not something Koh liked. However it was something that needed to be done; it was a training both he and his kikai bugs profited from.<p>

He had trained his bugs to be strong in battle and had, as his father had pointed out, neglected one of the strongest points of the Aburame clan, environmental awareness.

There were Aburame capable of mapping out entire hidden villages within minutes; however he was still working on differentiating between his house and the street connected to said house.

It was a process that could take years to perfect but it was a skill well worth having. Especially for his team. They were put together to infiltrate and spy. While Yuugi had her Byakugan and could see all around her. The Byakugan was meant to search for chakra, the rest, at least that's what Yuugi had said, the rest was almost a blur to her. This was a skill he needed to learn for his team and if that meant suffering headaches, then he would endure them to become a better asset to the team.

After nearly a full hour Koh recalled his bugs back to him and to award them for their hard work released twice the amount of chakra he normally would for them. The buzzing sounds he heard meant they were content with the snack he gave them. Koh waited for all of his bugs to return home when he heard a soft pop on his front porch.

A soft pop… that could only mean one thing. Making his way to the front door, he heard someone knocking on it. Koh took his time to open the door; he already knew who it was and also had a pretty good idea what it was about.

"Hello, Harry." He said, noticing he sounded tired.

"Hey Koh!" Harry answered back. "We've got a new mission from the Hokage. So get ready and pack for a month's worth of provisions. It's going to be a long one. I'll see you in twenty-seven minutes at the gate." Koh nodded to affirm as he noticed the last bug making his way back. "Great, see ya." Harry said before popping away with a soft popping sound.

* * *

><p>Naruto had just downed his second cup of instant ramen, the expensive kind only sold to him because the market guy thought he was worth it. It wasn't the best tasting ramen but the market guy did say it was one of the best if you wanted to be a ninja, something about carbs and other things. Naruto didn't really care about those. No; Naruto had something else on his mind. Lately he had been working on a special something. Something that made it nigh impossible for the Anbu to catch him when they were chasing after a successful prank.<p>

Naruto was working on walking on the walls, yesterday he had fell asleep on the ceiling, he realized his mistake quickly, though, as the floor woke him up quite coldly. But the hardships of becoming a ninja weren't unfamiliar with Naruto, he had practiced for days on end and though it wasn't easy, he had become as good as Sasuke was in walking on impossible things like trees and glass. Water wasn't quite as fool proof though. Each and every time Sasuke wanted him to participate in target practice he was forced to run on the Uchiha's pond and if he didn't focus enough he was awarded with a laugh and wet clothing.

But he and Sasuke had become better friends because of that. Best friends and rivals. Naruto was glad for that because the younger Uchiha sibling had been gone more than he was present. It had been tough at first to not have his first real friend there every day to play with but he understood. Harry was a ninja, and a good one at that. He had become Chuunin and he was even younger than most of the first years in the acadamy!

They still saw each other, and they ate ramen together. And Harry had said he had faith in his skills as a ninja and had told him when Sasuke wasn't present that if he were to be placed on Sasuke's team that Harry would see it as a personal favour if Naruto could keep an eye on him. He had of course given the small boy a promise for a life time to protect Sasuke, bringing a smile to the serious face of Harry.

Today they would be told what the final test was going to be, and then they would have a month to train themselves to the bone to show the teachers just how good they were. Naruto was sure that he and Sasuke would be able to complete the exams without a lot of problems. They were strong after all. What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

><p>Sasuke made his way to the academy. Harry had kept their sparring session short and after sending him to the showers had left to do chuunin stuff. Sasuke, unlike most other genin hopefuls, didn't walk to the academy the normal way. No he was using chakra! He was walking on the river. It was something Harry had told him to do, he had said that from the moment it would be as easy to walk on water as it was to walk on the pavement he had mastered water walking and he could go to the next level of chakra walking. Harry had kept it a secret what the next level was but for some reason Sasuke knew, he just knew, that it was something amazing and useful.<p>

Sasuke was halfway when he was met up by his blonde student. After all, it was Sasuke that was teaching Naruto. And though he would never admit it, Naruto was a quick learner and seemed to have chakra to spare at the end of the day.

"Hey Naruto." Sasuke said, making sure that his attention was still divided evenly between looking ahead and on keeping his chakra-output fluctuated enough as to not fall through the surface.

"Hey Sasuke." Naruto answered while in a burst of speed he had caught up to him making water splash around. "So, today we'll learn just how easy the tests are going to be! What do you think they'll task us with? I'm sure we'll have to throw shuriken and kunai."

Sasuke thought about it for a second. Itachi had never talked about the tests at the academy and whenever he started about them with Harry his little brother always muttered something about 'that crazy ass bitch' and changed the subject. "Well lately we've been going over the Kawarami no jutsu, it seems only logical that we'll be tasked with that. Nothing too difficult for someone like me, but I have seen you trying it, and student o' mine; you're still too weak for it." Sasuke said taunting the boy.

Naruto huffed in indignation. "Hah! You just watch! I'll master that technique before the sun sets tonight!"

Sasuke grinned. He had indeed seen Naruto use the replacement technique and he was already quite good at it. And he knew just how to motivate his student; a remark here an insult there and Naruto would be so fired up he'd focus entirely on the jutsu. He had promised Harry that he would look after Naruto, and though he had agreed with his little brother to do so; he had never promised to do it in the boring and sweet kind of way Harry taught Naruto.

"Okay, than I propose this. If you can successfully use the replacement jutsu tonight before dinner you can come over and we'll eat ramen at my expense. However if you cannot-" Sasuke suddenly got an evil gleam in his eyes. "If not than you will have to be my target when I practice with my new windmill shuriken."

"Deal!" Naruto said loudly. "But… isn't Harry home tonight? I thought Monday's were his experimental cooking days?" the blonde asked as they reached the academy and jumped off the water and onto the grass.

"Brother has a new mission and he is going to be gone for at least three weeks." Sasuke looked down at his feet, finding the water droplets extremely interesting.

"Three weeks? But… does that mean he will miss our graduation?

With an "Hnn." Sasuke answered Naruto's question and thus the conversation was ended.

* * *

><p>Kakashi had packed all of his ninja gear. It wasn't much, ten of everything and of course one Icha Icha Paradise. He was just going to visit his students telling them he would be gone for a few days before he went to take care of this mission.<p>

But first he had to visit the memorial stone. Ever since he had taken Rin's team over he had visited it less frequently, it had been nearly a week since he had visited, but as he arrived he found that the only thing that had changed was that now there were even more names on it.

It was amazing how many names the stone was capable of holding, by now there must have been thousands of names etched into it, yet it still had place for more. Future ninja that hadn't died yet already had their place reserved. With a grim thought he couldn't help but wonder where and when his name would be put on it. Would it be on the same side as Rin? Or Obito? Perhaps he would be put on the same side as Minato-sensei.

For a good while he just stood there. Remembering his old friends and comrades. However, when someone else with the intention of visiting the stone came near Kakashi left. He went to Yuugi first, but he heard she had left earlier that day to go on a mission.

It shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did. After all, that's what newly promoted chuunin teams did. They went on missions without their old Jounin sensei. Trying not to worry about his cute little chuunin, he made his way to the gates and told the guards he would be away on a mission.

"Where to, and when can we expect you back?" the bandaged guard asked.

Kakashi looked at the bandaged boy, he was obviously newly appointed to the position. Oh well, seems like it wasn't only his team that went through changes. "Land of Snow, should be back in a week; perhaps two."

"Alright Hatake, good luck."

* * *

><p>After putting everything he needed on his bed Harry went over his list once more. Shuriken? Check. Kunai? Check. Steel wire? Check. The list went on for a little while until the last thing on his list wasn't checked out.<p>

Fire flares… he needed at least three of them, one for each of the team members, but there were only two. Oh well, not like he had ever used them before, so why worry about them now?

Sealing everything into scrolls Harry put the scrolls in his backpack and popped away. In two minutes they would go on their first mission ever without a Jounin. And this time he would be the one who would have to make the choices, he would be the one responsible.

Doubt suddenly took hold of him, what if he made a wrong decision and had to pay with it with the lives of his teammates? What if he met someone as strong as Shimekukuri? Someone strong enough to tear down his Genjutsu, or someone stronger than him, faster than him, smarter than him? Harry shuddered. As his two teammates walked towards the gates he was standing in front of.

He would just have to put his trust in his teammates.

"Good, you're both on time." Harry motioned for them to follow him.

"Team Uchiha Haru." He said to the gate guards.

"Ah, good morning. So where ya off to, and when can we expect you back?" a bandaged boy asked of them.

"We're off to the Land of Snow, we should be back in three weeks, perhaps four." Harry said before he got a nod from the guard.

"Good luck there, it is supposed to be really chilly there this time of year."

* * *

><p>The three chuunin had travelled the entire day until it became midnight. "This seems like the perfect time to set up camp and get some rest before we continue our journey tomorrow. This also seems to be the perfect time to explain the details of our mission." Harry stopped jumping from tree to tree when he found a nice open place sheltered by pine trees.<p>

Yuugi and Koh both helped preparing the small clearing to be suitable for sleeping there. Harry made the campfire and so within ten minutes they had set up camp. "What are you doing?" Yuugi asked Koh when he spread his arms and released a large portion of his bugs making the clearing look blood red as they crawled over the ground and buzzed through the air.

"I am releasing my bugs; Why? Because this is part of my training. I've recently been made aware of a flaw in my capabilities as a ninja." Koh answered after all his bugs had spread out. "Currently my kikai bugs are mapping out this part of the pine forest. And with a chakra pulse every second they make me aware of my surroundings in real time." Grabbing a stick that lay on the ground he started drawing with it. "We are currently here." He said as he pointed to a small circle surrounded by dots. "Here is a river and there are two caverns here and there." Koh said before bringing his hand to his head.

"Are you all right, Koh?" Harry asked, noticing his teammate's less than normal behavior.

"It is just a minor headache, this is the first time I've tried it outside of Konoha; My bugs are excited and without any humans distorting the chakra network that my bugs have made the message is a whole lot clearer than I'm used to; it is most overwhelming." Koh shook his head "I should be acclimated to this process within a few minutes, you two should sleep while I keep watch." Laying down the stick he had used to draw a map, he looked at Harry and continued. "That is if our team-captain agrees with that decision of course?"

Harry nodded. "That sounds fine, wake me up in four hours and I'll take over your shift and we can give Yuugi a full nights rest." Yuugi wanted to protest but Harry held up his hand. "We need you at full strength tomorrow. We are getting closer to the less peaceful parts of the Great Pine Forest and we'll need your Byakugan to make sure we don't run into any trouble."

"Fine." Yuugi said. "But aren't you forgetting something?" At Harry's blank stare she continued. "You said you would give us the mission specifics but have failed to do so thus far." A small smile crept onto her face. "Team-captain."

"Ah yes, that… Uhm well … Yes." Procuring the mission scroll he had received earlier that day from his backpack Harry read it over silently once. "Okay so our client is a man named Gatou. Apparently he owns this shipping company and he ships flowers. And there is this company in Snow country which is able to ship a rare flower called 'Klamath Weed'. Our client wants to know where this other company, Snow flower Corp., is getting these flowers from. And how they're shipping them out in such large quantities."

* * *

><p>A young boy ran through the high green grass, wind rushing through his short mouse brown hair. His fur brandished winter coat kept him warm and his cheeks rosy. The boy was chasing after a rabbit and though he sometimes lost sight of it his keen eyes soon found the little creature once more.<p>

The boy couldn't be older than eight, or nine at most, but possibly only seven. It took the boy a while, but after following the rabbit for a good fifteen minutes he had caught it after it had hopped straight into his arms. "Finally. Sister would've been so angry with me." The boy hugged the rabit tightly so it couldn't escape again. "Next time I take you out of your cage you shouldn't run off like that."

The rabbit's ear twitched as if in reply. The boy looked around him and was surrounded by thick mist 'When had he walked into a mist bank?' "Where are we? Oh man, you've really did it this time Kati! We're lost." Sighing, the boy started to walk in the same direction from which he came, it wasn't easy to find his way and he had a feeling he was truly and utterly lost. "Oh man, mom is going to be upset with me…" the boy said fearing he was in trouble.

The boy kept trying to find his way out of the mist and he succeeded once he reached a hot spring that was connected to a small waterfall. The boy stopped there, not because the hot spring looked inviting but because there was something off about it. The waterfall water wasn't pouring down, it wasn't moving it all. The water was just frozen in suspended animation in mid-air.

"This feels weird Kita." The boy told his sister's rabbit. The boy went through his knees to feel the water; it wasn't warm, it was freezing cold. Slowly his brain figured out that the sounds he had heard earlier wasn't the sound of water clashing on water but of something else and with the illusion of the serene looking hot spring gone the area around the boy morphed into something else a giant field with hundreds if not thousands of fruit bearing flowers. "What-"the boy uttered before a golden arrow struck him. The boy fell over releasing the rabbit he had previously. The rabbit looked at the boy as if wondering why he was lying in the snow before he noticed the two shinobi standing behind the boy. The rabbit blinked once before he sped away.

"That was fucking cruel of you." A girl said putting away some sort of stick. "He's so young, what use could we have for a fucking baby."

A boy appeared from behind her wiping saliva off the corner of his mouth. "Just make sure the next fool who finds his way to this place isn't able to so easily see through your genjutsu. He's still alive, someone as small as him should be useful in the harvesting project.

Naruto was sitting next to Sasuke. Their teacher, Iruka, was going on about something uninteresting; on the chalk board he had drawn a kunai and was now yapping about how the wind could effect it. Who cared about that? All Naruto needed to know about kunai was that if you threw them hard enough they would hurt someone. And if someone threw them at him he just had to dodge. His eye twitched as an image of the hundreds of speeding kunai Sasuke was throwing at him replaced the boring classroom, it took all his strength not to yelp and get out of there.

Naruto sat for hours until finally a word piqued his interest "Genin tests. So that means you'll have to study hard and because it is in four weeks you'll be given the last week off to train and prepare for it properly. Now I don't want to see any of you guys slacking on any of the other parts that are perhaps less exciting than the jutsu exam! There are points awarded for each and every part and it so happens that the brother of our current number one is also attending this group." Iruka quickly looked at Sasuke. "If you do well, extremely well on all subjects you'll be awarded title of Rookie of the Year, a title which will open a lot of doors in your shinobi careers. After all, the fourth Hokage had been Rookie of the Year and so have many important and strong Jounin."

Iruka turned around and cleaned the blackboard with four big swiping movements. "For the jutsu part of the exam you are required to perform but not limited to the following three jutsu." The piece of chalk in Iruka's hand moved elegantly over the pitch black surface. "The first jutsu you'll perform is one that we've gone over way back in the beginning of this year is the Henge no jutsu."

Iruka pointed the crayon at Yamanaka Ino "What does the Henge do?"

Ino wasted no time and answered promptly "It is the transformation technique, when used correctly you can cast an illusion over yourself making you look like anything or anyone."

Iruka nodded. "Good. The second jutsu is the Kawarami no jutsu." Looking through the classroom as if searching for a victim Iruka once more pointed his piece of chalk, this time at Aburame Shino.

"The replacement jutsu, a ninja can quickly use a prepared object to switch locations with using smoke to hide the fast movement." Shino answered before the question was even asked.

"Indeed. The third jutsu…" Iruka wrote another sentence on the board. "The third jutsu will be the bunshin no jutsu." Iruka smirked as he pointed at Sasuke.

"The bunshin is an illusionary technique creating the image of replications of oneself or others, the images are just that though; images and merely weak chakra veils."

Iruka nodded. "Good, it doesn't surprise me you know so much about the bunshin; after all it was your brother that showed nearly all variations of it during his test." At hearing that Sasuke's eyebrow quirked up before looking at Naruto who was sweating profusely and biting his nails.

"Naruto, are you all right?" he asked in a whisper.

Naruto had listened enthusiastically to his teachers words but as soon as the accursed words bunshin no jutsu fell he swallowed his saliva. Perhaps something could go wrong. Horribly, utterly fantastically wrong!

The night had lasted only a few short hours and as soon as the sun touched Yuugi's face she woke up. The Kunoichi looked around her and for just a second she had forgotten she was on a mission with her team. Yuugi could feel her legs had worked hard yesterday; but they could take a few more days of abuse before they would slow down noticeably.

She got up next to her lay Koh, though the short night was even shorter for the bug boy he didn't seem like he was fatigued at all. "Did you sleep well, Yuugi?" he asked, the drawling of his voice told her he hadn't been awake for long either.

"I cannot complain." She said; in truth she could. The ground was hard, the hooting owls had awoken her a few times and her make shift pillow made of branches and leaves wasn't inviting at all, but she was on a mission and both Koh and Harry had sacrificed part of their night to keep her safe and energized. Standing up she stretched out and let a yawn escape. Going through the scrolls she had hidden in her coat Yuugi mumbled: "I'll make us some breakfast, just have to find the correct scroll… Oh there it is. I should label them with colours, they're so tough to differ between."

Koh nodded. "Harry is aware we're awake now, he should be-"A cracking sound cut Koh off as Harry appeared in their midst.

"Good morning; Koh, Yuugi." He greeted before planting himself down. "Did you both rest well?"

"Yes, I cannot complain. I am making breakfast, want some bread rolls?" unsealing the scroll with a bit of chakra, a plate with six bread rolls appeared. "I have enough for all three of us."

Harry smiled. "Sure!" Taking a bite out of the first bread roll he could get his hands on he started to talk with his mouth full. "These… Yuugi, they're… great!" To further emphasize his point Harry swallowed the remainder of his bread roll and quickly grabbed a second one.

"It is indeed a most appreciated breakfast, Yuugi." Koh said softly.

"Thanks." A small blush appeared on Yuugi's cheeks. "I made them myself before we left."

"Well you did a really great job! Now eat this up quickly, because in two minutes we have to go on our merry way again." The smallest chuunin among them commanded. "It's a four day journey we have ahead of us and I want to be through this forest before night falls, the pine trees give me the creeps."

"Why don't you just body-pop us there, it would certainly be quicker than what we're doing now." Yuugi asked.

With a well practiced motion of his hand Harry brushed the hair out of his face, a boyish grin taking over. "Well I haven't been there before and even if I had I am unsure if I had the juice to appe- body pop us all over there in one go without knocking myself out."

"Aside from that, traveling like this is part of the shinobi tradition; how will we see the world and get to know it if we just travel the easy way?" Koh inclined his head. "There is no honor in that."

Harry nodded. "Koh is right, traveling by foot is a far more satisfying way of going about this mission." Packing the few things he had lying around Harry caressed the bark of a pine tree. "The trees here are so quiet compared to the trees back home. I feel almost blind here; My Mokuton has hardly any effect on these trees, I really want to get out of this place guys. Yuugi, you're up to using the Byakugan every ten minutes? We can't have anyone slowing us down so if you can make sure we stay out of everyone's hair? We'll travel in an odd triangle formation with Yuugi at the front me on her left flank and Koh, you the furthest back on her right, alright?"

Both Yuugi and Koh agreed with his formation plan. "Do you want me to evade everyone or just people with chakra?"

"These forests are filled with thugs and miscreants, we need to go through it as fast as possible, evade everyone and everything that could slow us down." Harry decided.

* * *

><p>Kakashi hopped from tree to tree. It wouldn't be long, perhaps four more days before he would reach the town of of his target. It had been a long time since he had been on an assassination mission but despite the many months he hadn't have to plan for an assassination he was still capable. After all it was easier to learn how to kill a person than it was to forget it; despite knowing that there had been moments in his years as a jounin he had tried to do exactly that.<p>

For more than two years he had been living the life of a normal Jounin, even a Jounin sensei for a good while. But now that he was alone without a team once again it was time to pick up the slack and be ready to drop the mask of Hatake Kakashi, aloof pervert and Jounin of Konoha and don the persona of Inu. Anbu captain and assassin of hundreds. Soon birds would chirp a thousand songs when he struck.

* * *

><p>Yuugi's chakra seemed to spike for a second as she activated her Byakugan, They were running a near straight line; it was as if the forest had paved them a way. On the edge of her vision a good eight hundred meters ahead of them nine people with little to no chakra had made camp. "750 meter ahead of us is a civilian campsite, we'll need to take to the trees once more if we want to keep our current course." Yuugi explained before she jumped high and hopped from branch to branch. Through her Byakugan she could see that Harry had followed her advise and that Koh had followed Harry's example.<p>

They passed the civilians without being noticed; they would've been a poor excuse for a chuunin team if they hadn't succeeded in that. Yuugi was glad she had such a warm coat as the wind seemingly tried to freeze them, the further they went the colder it got. Not surprising considering their destination was one of the coldest places on the planet. The Land of Snow wasn't named as such because of its hot beaches and warm climate. It was a most unforgiving place for the unprepared traveller and though it was habited by a lot of people native to the coal mining cities, not many ventured these lands without good reason.

Yuugi deactivated her Byakugan once she saw no other humans in their vicinity. The Byakugan was a strong tool but also one that drained her of both chakra and stamina. With just a few hand signs she signaled to their resident Uchiha and team captain Harry that they were clear for a kilometer or so.

* * *

><p>That night when they set camp Yuugi wished she had packed warmer clothing, thankfully Harry had thought of taking warm woolen bedspreads with him on this trip. "Thank you." She said her breath condensing the air to create puffs of mist.<p>

"Don't bother, I knew they would come in handy." Harry went over to Koh. "Koh tonight you'll be the one to sleep the full shift, Yuugi got her rest last night and I'll take it tomorrow. Yuugi you will take first shift to guard our camp, wake me up in four hours." With that said Harry planted his hands into the ground and with a frown on his face made a small den for both him and Koh to lay in. "That should keep us warm enough. Yuugi, don't overuse your Byakugan; I don't expect any trouble this far off into the wilderness… Got it?"

Yuugi sighed. "All right. Now off to sleep with the both of you. I'll keep the terror of night at bay." A small laugh escaped her lips. "No grizzly bear will pass me!" she exclaimed.

"This part of the world doesn't have any grizzly bears, there are a lot of moose here though. But not the awe inspiring ones." Koh stated matter of factly before sleep overcame him.

* * *

><p>Yuugi was sitting in one of the highest tree she could find near their camp, from there she could overlook the endless pine forest, even with her Byakugan she was not able to see as far as she could now. The dark green trees seemed to be all around them, endless; Though the mountains she could see far away in the distance assured her of the fact that it wasn't as endless as it seemed.<p>

Far beneath, both her teammates were fast asleep, yet she could sense movement. Movement meant danger and without a word her Byakugan activated and the veins on her face started to bulge. They were surrounded by ninja; if the obvious usage of chakra was anything to go by.

She let herself fall out of the tree and landed softly on the ground next to her teammates. She shook them awake but with a finger in front of her mouth she made sure that they remained silent.

Both Harry and Koh were wide awake within a second and with hand signs they communicated their battle plan; if it were to come to that. First both Yuugi and Koh made themselves scarce, leaving behind only Harry.

"Is anyone there? I can hear you!" Harry let out in a shrieking voice, his forehead protector was hidden under his sweater and even Koh would've thought Harry to be a normal child civilian instead of a ninja if he didn't know better. Ninja didn't shake in their boots like that, ninja didn't call out their adversaries, and ninja weren't wide eyed boys of almost seven.

Harry could feel that the ninja that had surrounded them eased considerably; he could count them, a total of six. 'What brought these shinobi here in the middle of nowhere?'

"Boss, it's just a kid." A gruff voice said echoing through the thick forest.

"Just a kid? That's perfect. Another pair of hands for the harvesting project. Take him with you." The presumed boss of the six commanded before five of the assumed underlings appeared within Harry's field of sight.

"The harvesting project?" Harry squeaked. "Just go, leave me alone."

One of the ninja came out of the shadows, the moonlight revealing his visage. The man looked no older than twenty-five, a few healed scrapes and cuts on his hands and face. The way he held himself he looked no better than a genin, perhaps chuunin. On his forehead was a forehead protector with a music note engraved in it. "No can do, little one. Now just leave your things behind and you can come with us; we could really use your help." The man said, he actually sounded like a kind man.

Harry wondered what was going on here when his eyes caught the shimmering of a chain. Connected to said chain were civilians, they were handcuffed and had cloth over their mouth. 'That are the people of the camp we passed by earlier this afternoon…' "My mommy told me not to talk to strangers, just leave me alone, please sir."

The ninja shook his head. "No can do… Beside; I am no stranger. My name is Shito." The men stretched out his arm as if he wanted to shake hands with him. "What's yours?"

Before Harry could answer the boss of the other five ninja got annoyed and barked out "Enough of the sweet talk, just capture and handcuff him."

For a moment time seemed frozen and Harry had a choice to make; he could either keep up this façade and find out what in the world was going on the easy but time consuming way. Or he could call out his teammates and do the right thing by freeing the civilians and demanding answers out of the ninja. It wasn't a tough decision to make. Not tough at all. After all, he had it drilled in his system, one must do what is right over what is easy.

With three hand signals two of the ninja behind him screamed as they were attacked by insects. "Kill them all, leave the boss alive; he has answers to give." Harry said- his tone deadly.

The ninja with the outstretched arm backed away as Harry's Sharingan activated. Next to him he could hear Yuugi attacking another one of the ninja; for now he had to trust that his teammates were strong enough to handle themselves in this situation. Realizing that this was a serious situation Harry didn't hold back. With a pop he was gone from the ninja's sight and appeared behind him. He held his hands to both sides of the man's head and forced his chakra to create two spikes of wood. One protruding from his left, the other protruding from his right hand. With a sickening crack blood spattered as the man's brains were turned into mush.

Dispatching the wooden spikes, leaving them in the shinobi's head he turned to face another of the ninja, this time a woman. The Kunoichi held a long sword in her right hand; it was shaking. Harry had no time for pity, though, and with just a few hand seals disappeared into the ground with the hidden mole jutsu.

A half second later he pulled the Kunoichi down into the ground, she tried to scream but Harry, with a string of ninja wire, cut off her head, leaving it to slowly roll over the fallen branches and pinecones... There was no time for mercy on the battlefield and Harry knew that if he was the weaker one they would've done the same to him.

Harry looked to see where Koh and Yuugi were. Koh was already after the boss, whom by the sight of it wasn't as weak as his underlings, he was using fire jutsu to distance himself from Koh's bugs. Yuugi was nowhere to be seen, but her earlier opponent was lying on the ground unmoving and had blood trickling out of his mouth.

Harry took a few seconds to calm himself. Taking the life of two humans so fast after each other wasn't something that was easy. Pulling himself together he told Koh to stay back and with a pop he appeared before the boss punching the man in his gut, the same time Yuugi appeared behind the chuunin and faster than she had ever shown to be capable of she sealed all his chakra, making the man fall over in Harry's arms. Harry caught the man and laid him softly on the ground. "Well done Koh, Yuugi. Make sure all of them are actually dead and take care of the civilians; I'll handle this big guy."

Harry leaned over the presumed chuunin and opened the man's eyes with his fingers. His Sharingan started to spin fast enough to make the three tomoe in them a blur, nothing more than a thin black line surrounded by a sea of red. The man was still conscious and tried to look away, tried to look at anything but Harry's eyes. But the one glimpse he laid on the Sharingan made his attempts futile.

Harry's chakra had built up and when he connected with the man's pupil he could start the process of hypnotization. It wasn't difficult to hypnotize someone for a person with the Sharingan. All you needed was a thread of chakra to pull someone into your eyes, make them obsessed by the spinning tomoe, and make them lose their will in front of the overpowering might his doujutsu possessed. "You want to tell me your name, rank. "Harry said in a whisper.

The chuunin gasped as if he just was made aware he forgot something. "My name is Kohau Ubun, I am a chuunin of Oto." The man's face relaxed, entirely content now that he had told Harry that.

Harry's Sharingan slowed down before increasing their rotation speed. "You want to explain me about Oto, you want to tell me what you are doing here."

"Otokagure is the village hidden by sound." Ubun stopped, trying to fight the hypnotizing powers of the Sharingan, he failed spectacularly. "We're located in the land of sound…" Ubun started to sweat. Something other than Ubun was trying to fight Harry's hold over the chuunin. Harry realized his grip was weakening and quickly stopped this line of questioning. They must have protected his mind from revealing such information.

"You want, no you need to tell me about your current mission." Harry said sweetly.

Ubun shivered. "We are tasked with collecting workers for the fields."

Harry got closer to Ubun's face. "Tell me where these fields are." Ubun's pupils dilated, he was now entirely under Harry's hypnoses.

"In the Land of Snow, east of the city of Kuwain." Harry frowned upon hearing this, that was annoyingly close to where they needed to be.

Harry heard his teammate getting closer to him, apparently they had already let the civilians go. Hypnotizing someone was not a fast ordeal; he must have been at it for a good twenty minutes now. "Explain to me what the harvesting project is." Harry commanded. The answer came relatively fast this time.

"The harvesting project is he reaping of the fruit." Suddenly Ubun stopped, his eyes widening in fear and his tongue swelling up.

Harry wondered what was happening before Yuugi grabbed his arm and pulled him of Ubun. "He's going to explode. There are a ton of seals in his throat, and they've activated."

And then it all happened so fast; Ubun exploded in a flash of white and red, Harry grabbed both Koh and Yuugi and with a thundering crack popped away but not before Koh got hit by a stray Kunai that had been attached to Ubun's vest and somehow found his way to him.

* * *

><p>The moment they appeared a hundred meters away from the explosion Koh let out a scream. Harry panted, it wasn't often he had forced his body to go through the strain body popping with two others at the same time in such a short time frame.<p>

Harry looked at Koh and couldn't help but notice that the boy's leg was missing a chunk of his thigh. "Damn Koh, your leg." Harry said pushing Yuugi aside to get a clear view of the wound.

"Don't worry." Koh said "It is not outside of my own technique's perimeter to heal this." Suddenly hundreds of bugs poured out of Koh, the red bugs started eating away the damaged flesh that had been exposed to the air.

Harry couldn't help but look away at the grotesque sight of his friend's jutsu. "It looks so wrong." Yuugi muttered.

"Feiku Fetsuniku-no jutsu." Koh said weakly. The hundreds of bugs glowed before they shrivelled up and somehow ended up replacing the missing flesh.

"So that's your fake flesh healing jutsu." Harry said examining the wound. "A few seconds later his hands started to glow bright green. "It's not perfect, but it certainly stopped the bleeding and has already given you back the mass you lost." Harry placed his hands on the newly formed skin the uneven color slowly evened out.

"Thank you Harry, don't exhaust yourself anymore for me, it is in a good enough condition to perform to satisfactory extents." Koh said making Harry nod and stop the healing jutsu.

"We were lucky to survive that…" Yuugi noted "The civilians weren't as lucky. They got caught in the explosion, seems like even the corpses got caught in the attack, there is nothing left but a crater. Perhaps we did more harm than good tonight."

Harry shook his head. "No, we did well. There was no reason to suspect that he was a ticking time bomb. If anything it is my fault for not making him tell me if it was safe or not to interrogate him like that, he would've answered my questions truthfully after all. I'm sorry guys." He sighed. "However there's no reason to dwell on this unexpected turn of events, I'm guessing you were both listening in while he talked to me?"

Both Yuugi and Koh nodded. "I've never heard of a village hidden by sound. It must be relatively new or I would have been informed of it by my family." Koh stated.

"I think so as well, but I am less concerned about the fact that there is a new hidden village in the elemental countries than I am about the fact they are just taking civilians to work for them in the Land of Snow." Yuugi added. "Harry, do you want to report this to the Hokage?"

"We shall report to him once we get back, the mission must have our priority. Beside we are no longer in the land of fire, we have no way too contact the village with Koh's bugs and I'd rather give this sort of information in person than by the written word and have the chance that it can be intercepted."

"All right. Than what we do next seems simple, I'll resume guard duty while the two of you rest, both of you have wasted more chakra than I have." Yuugi offered.

"No, I have a better idea. All three of us need the rest, however that explosion will draw the attention of anyone with eyes or ears. I believe it is time for us to go underground." with a cocky grin Harry weaved through a dozen hand seals. The ground started to shake before the ground they were sitting on slowly started to sink in the earth. "We will be safe here, for now." Going through another set of seals the pit they were in got sealed off. "We will stay underground until we have all recuperated to full strength."

* * *

><p>Kakashi had awoken to quite a bang. Just a few kilometres away the mother of all explosions had eradicated a part of the forest. "Pakkun, do you know what happened there?" Kakashi asked of a dog that was lying in his hair.<p>

"No, not really." Pakkun sniffed a few times. "There's a lot of chakra that has been thrown around there though."

Kakashi erected to his full height. "That doesn't surprise me, to create such an explosion… that must have been one hell of a jutsu." Stretching a few times he made up his mind about what to do. "Pakkun, how do you feel about a little investigation?" he asked.

"As long as you won't let my soft paws do all the hard work, sure." Pakkun answered.

A good five minutes later Kakashi arrived with his ninken at the edge of the crater. The dust clouds had already cleared. Kakashi kneed down and took a sample of the affected soil. "Hmm."

"What is it Kakashi?" the small dog asked.

Kakashi took his time to inspect the soil further before answering. "This wasn't a normal explosion, look around you Pakkun, where is the fire? The smoke?" Pakkun took a big sniff of air. "This was done with seals… The radius of this crater, the lack of heat and the cleanness around the crater. It couldn't be anything other than that."

"It could've been a dust element jutsu. I remember it leaving behind sights like these." Pakkun jumped off Kakashi head and started to dig with his paw. "The ground is soft, it is like someone took a shovel and just removed the top layer of earth. Another sign that it might be someone with the dust element."

"No, the dust element wouldn't have caused an explosion like the one we've seen. Dust element gives a bright flash, not a dome of light. Aside from that, the only known user of the dust element left is the Third Tsuchikage; and he hardly ever leaves his village let alone go out and fight someone all the way out here." Kakashi looked around him. "No the cause is clear, this was done with seals, this begs the question of who would be capable to facilitate such a destructive seal, I only know of a few them; none of them would be good news."

"What are you suggesting Kakashi?" the dog asked.

Kakashi sighed. "That perhaps it is better to leave this mystery for what it is, I see no signs of survivors and without any other clues as to what might have happened here it would be futile to stay and try to find out. Let's just see it as an early wake up call and get moving, thank you for keeping watch tonight, Pakkun. I'll summon you again tomorrow night."

Pakkun nodded. "Understood." And with that word the dog, in a puff of smoke, disappeared.

* * *

><p>Harry had fallen asleep with relative ease, the events that had happened that night weren't as easy to come to terms with for a certain pale eyed girl though. Harry had been rudely awakened by the unease he could feel coming from Yuugi. She kept on turning in her sleep.<p>

The pit he had made earlier wasn't comfortable; it was just a meter wide and though they all were children both Yuugi and Koh were far longer than him and thus he had lain in the middle of the three of them. And so felt every movement either of the other two made.

Turning his attention inward instead of worrying about his teammates Harry found his pool of chakra to have recuperated and eased down. The adrenaline he had felt last night had evaporated but the few hours of sleep he had gotten had replenished him thoroughly. Harry was the last to actually wake up. "Thanks for letting me sleep in."

"No problem; you're younger than us and need more sleep, it is only logical for us to give you the time." Koh stood up. "Now get us out of here, my kikai bugs are getting restless."

"I've already checked with my Byakugan, there is no one around." Yuugi added.

Harry stretched himself. "Sure… put me to work right away. And here I thought I was the team captain and could tell you guys what to do."

Yuugi smiled sweetly, it felt unnatural. "You are team captain, but remember what Kakashi-sensei told us; it is just so that we can do less."

"I don't think this is what he meant. " Harry rebutted. "But it's okay." With a few chosen seals and a slam of his hands against the ground they started to rise up while the pit opened. "I guess you guys want to resume where we left of yesterday, so no breakfast and let's get going!" Harry jumped high into the air, setting the pace for that day. Fast.

Koh looked at Yuugi and shrugged. "Traveling through the trees is indeed a more productive way, it is faster than traveling by foot on the ground."

A few hours later the sun was at its highest point and the three chuunin were traveling in their odd triangle formation once again. If they kept up this pace they might just reach the land of snow in an hour or two and from there they could try to find out just how and where their target was getting their flowers from.

"We're reaching the border of the land of snow in two hours. Yuugi make sure we don't run into any of the border patrol. The Hokage's orders were clear, we were to remain hidden while in the land of snow, officially this mission isn't happening…" Harry said as he caught up with Yuugi.

Yuugi frowned. "Sure, got it. Are we going to investigate what those shinobi from Oto disclosed to us?"

"No, I've thought about and while it doesn't sound quite right; it is not within our jurisdiction to do anything about. We will inform the Hokage of what happened when we return, just as protocol requires us to do. The mission comes first." Harry fell back, resuming his role in the formation and signifying the end of the conversation.

Slowly the landscape started to change, green pine forests made way for snow covered open fields and enormous mountains. They had reached the land of snow.

* * *

><p>Sasuke and Naruto were busy with their usual antics, Sasuke was throwing windmill shuriken and Naruto evaded them or countered the oversized shuriken with a windmill shuriken of his own. They had been at it for almost an hour. The yard was no longer green as grass but dark grey. Shuriken, kunai and windmill shuriken were everywhere. "That's enough of that, Naruto." Sasuke said. " It's time to relax our bodies now."<p>

"We did great today! You didn't hit me once even though you've gotten scarily good at predicting where I'll be next." Naruto took of his vest, his whisker adorned cheeks were red and sweat had made his hair damp. "I think we should start working on the clones next."

Sasuke scoffed. "Clones are easy, I don't need to practice with those."

"Well I need to train with them, mine always come out like they've been washed in bleach. I need to make at least three fully functional clones." Naruto whined.

"Hmm… show me blondie." Sasuke sat down on one of the few still open places.

Naruto got to it right away and with great concentration, a few hand seals "Bunshin no jutsu" he produced two droopy nosed clones who looked more like paper than a human.

"You did everything right… dispel them and show me again." Sasuke said standing up and inching closer to Naruto. "Go through the seals slowly this time. Perhaps you over stretched your fingers."

Naruto silently dispelled the failed attempts at a bunshin and slowly went through the hand seals and once again created two miserable looking versions of himself.

"I don't see what is wrong with it." Sasuke went through the same hand seals as Naruto did and created three perfect looking clones.

"I don't get it, you did the same thing as I did!" Naruto said pointing at Sasuke's clones.

Sasuke dispelled his clones and brought his hand to his chin, rubbing it. "Perhaps… No that's not it… Naruto, can you try to create one clone instead of two?"

Naruto nodded. "It's only more difficult when I try to create one though." Again, Naruto tried and failed. The clone looked even worse than his previous attempt, lying on the ground and looking more like a washed up paper than a human.

"Dispel that… thing." Sasuke looked intrigued. "So less is more difficult for you? Than why don't you try more?"

Naruto looked at Sasuke with wide eyes and muttered "why didn't I think of that?" going through the seals again Naruto tried to create as many clones as he could visualize and succeeded somewhat. The entire garden was filled clones but they still looked to be made out of used toiletpaper.

Sasuke gasped at the amount of clones. He himself had trouble creating more than eight of them, he had tried once to create ten but they started to come out less than perfect, some of them had no nose or missed an ear, another had pink hair… But Naruto had created the same quality of clones on a larger scale. "Wait here, I'm going to find the scroll for this. Harry had it put in the library a few months ago when he taught it to me." Sasuke went inside for a minute or three and came back with a small scroll.

"Wait the bunshin no jutsu is in that scroll?" Naruto asked.

"Well not the jutsu itself, but it explains how to do the jutsu. If we follow this explanation there should be no reason for you to fail, it is foolproof afterall..." Naruto looked annoyed at Sasuke whom pointed at the title of the scroll. "Don't look at me like that blondie; see it says so right here." And indeed, there it stood in ink.

Both of the genin hopefuls went over the entire process of going about making a clone. "You ready? Remember to not pour chakra into the jutsu until after the second seal!" Sasuke took a step back to give Naruto space to create the clones.

"Bunshin no jutsu." Smoke erupted our of nothingness and there stood two clones next to Naruto. Both standing upright, pale as salt and miserable to the bone. "Aaargh!" Naruto screamed.

"Guess there is something worse than a fool… a Naruto." Sasuke said to himself. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the insult. "I don't get it though… did you pour in the chakra after the second seal or when you made the second seal?"

"Like it said, I did after! How am I going to become a genin if I can't even make an illusionary clone." Naruto whined. But Sasuke perked up at that.

"Say that again." He commanded.

"I did it after…"

Sasuke grunted "No what you said after that."

Naruto looked at Sasuke unsure of the boy's reasons. "Uhm, How am I going to become a genin if I can't make a bunshin?"

"No you said Illusionary clone." Sasuke said.

"If you knew what I said why'd you ask me to repeat myself?" Naruto asked, annoyed.

"Because, blondie. That explains it. You can't make illusions; Its something Harry talked to me about once; something about genjutsu being one of the toughest and most elite branches in the jutsu tree." Naruto just raised his eyebrow. "Don't you see, genjutsu is difficult because if you don't have enough finesse in molding your chakra it just fails. Look, I think I know what you did wrong."

Sasuke took a deep breath and went through the seals. "Bunshin no jutsu." He shouted and from thin air a clone appeared beside Sasuke. It looked horrible, the skin was pale and sweaty and his nose was drooping.

"You did it wrong as well?" Naruto asked confused.

"Yes, you put way too much chakra into this Naruto. I could've made a good few hundred of normal bunshins with that amount of chakra." Sasuke's legs were trembling and he sat down before he fell down.

"So I should make a few hundred clones?" Naruto asked unsure of himself, he had tried that a good few minutes ago and it didn't end up with better results.

"No, that would never work; you'd just put too much chakra in each clone… You've got a lot of it…" Sasuke got a thoughtful look over his face. "You cannot perform this bunshin Naruto. Not until you're able to proportion your chakra better… Yet we only have a month and chakra control is hard enough to acquire as it is…But with this knowledge it is amazing you're able to walk on water and trees. It doesn't quite add up. Perhaps… No we need to think outside the box. If you want to pass the exams you need to make the sensei think you performed the bunshin somehow without actually making clones."

* * *

><p>The journey had been long, but after five cold days they arrived at the town of Kuwain. "According to these files, Snow Land Corp. should have it's main office here. Koh I want you to find out where that building is. This town is filled to the brim with shinobi from Oto, I don't want to risk us getting exposed." Harry proposed.<p>

"Why not have Yuugi use her Byakugan? She would be able to find it within a few hours." Koh asked

Harry looked at Yuugi; the girl obviously wondered about the same thing. "We've been given a month for this mission and while I know that Yuugi would be able to find their office faster than you could, I think it is important we don't rely on her Byakugan too much. It is paramount that when on a mission all of us are able to scout, infiltrate and perform to satisfying extent. This is no exercise, there is pressure to perform and I know you Koh, you perform under pressure. I expect you to find their office before tomorrow evening."

"The chance of my bugs being capable of doing that is closer to zero than to hundred. But I shall try my best." Koh immediately walked to the edge of the hill they were standing on and his bugs started to crawl out of his clothing.

"I'll never get used to seeing that." Harry said awkwardly getting a quick nod from Yuugi.

"So what do you want me to do while Koh is mapping out Kuwain?" she asked.

Harry put a hand on her shoulder and pointed at the mountains. "We, my fair Hyuuga maiden, we are going on an adventure." Yuugi gave the Uchiha an incredulous look. Harry brushed his hands through his hair. "We will try to find the flowers… It just sounds so silly, please pretend that we're going on an adventure instead?"

Yuugi laughed and pushed Harry away. "Searching for the flowers it is then! I'll take east, you take west?"

"That sounds like a good plan, we'll rendezvous at this point before night falls." Harry walked to Koh, who was already sitting on a fallen tree. "Koh we will leave you here so make sure to stay hidden."

Koh nodded before vanishing in a genjutsu. "Don't let your guard down, if a shinobi were to pay attention they might notice you in spite of that." Harry said to thin air, but he was sure Koh had heard him.

Harry looked around. The small city was under them, protected by the mountains that guarded its valley. The hill they were currently on was connected to both mountains yet was part of neither. This place was almost idyllic, snow had covered each and every surface and the mountains kept the blinding sunlight at bay, blanketing the valley in which the town lay. Harry saw Yuugi disappearing in the large bushes and pine trees that covered these mountains and hills.

It didn't take long for Harry to start enjoying his walk outside- mission to investigate his surroundings. The pine trees were unsettling still. Around Konoha the trees were full of life, they whispered in excitement during spring. In the summer they hummed the rhythm of life itself, during fall their song was soft and mellow and in the winter they slept, the deep snoring sounds were peaceful. But these pine trees were mum.

It was only now that he wasn't around leaf trees anymore that he noticed he missed it, that he had grown attached to the song of trees. The scenery that the land of snow had given him, though, was beautiful; perfect white snowscapes with here and there a speck of green when snow had fallen of the trees.

Harry was searching for anything that had to do with their objective; the Klamath weed. The file he had been given by the Hokage had a picture of the fruit bearing flower enclosed in it. It was kind of weird how a delicate flower such as the Klamath weed was capable of growing in such a harsh climate. The yellow flowers would stand out like a star in a clear sky.

He noticed that someone was walking over the road just a few meters ahead of him. Hiding in the bushes Harry hoped it would be someone working for the Snow Land Corp. But as the person, no scratch that, three man shinobi cell got closer he could see that it was another set of the Oto ninja they had faced earlier.

Harry couldn't help but overhear what they were talking about.

"Man, this mission really is the worst." A young boy said, he was trying to warm himself by rubbing his arms.

A girl huffed at that "I know right? It's horrible, the snow around here really does my complexion no good." A few seconds went by and Harry could see their faces now as well. He had already activated his Sharingan and he could clearly see the music note etched on their forehead protector. "But whatever the Otokage wants us to do, we do. We owe him a lot after all."

A tall women seemed to agree with that, nodding her head. "Yes, Otokage-sama is a great man and we are here because he wants to help us. So stop your nagging, do that in your own time."

Harry wondered exactly what they were doing here; he could put them in a genjutsu and try to get the answer out of them without them noticing, but if they, just as Udun, had seals placed upon them that wouldn't be possible. 'They aren't important to the mission Harry, just this once don't get involved in a mystery.' Harry chastised himself. Deactivating his Sharingan, Harry was about to turn around and continue his search when a few words caught his attention. "Those stupid flowers!" the girl said before sneezing.

Harry's eyes widened and slowly the weels in his head started turning. "What kind of ninja are you, allergic to some stupid flowers." The young boy taunted his fellow Oto-ninja.

She looked at the boy in anger. "You little-!" she started before the taller woman hit her on her head.

"Quiet you two, someone is listening in on us." She said looking around her.

'shit, a sensor type…' Harry tried to mask his chakra when suddenly the woman threw a set of kunai at him. Harry decided to not take his changes and just pop away.

The second he disappeared from behind the bushes, he appeared a good few kilometers back; behind his teammate. "Koh; I think we have taken on a mission that just might be more trouble than expected." Harry noticed that the genjutsu around Koh shimmered away. Koh looked fatigued- extremely so. "Koh are you alright?"

Koh just looked at Harry through his sunglasses. "I am doing as well as I did when you departed from here. Just a minor headache. The town is filled with ninja; they aren't making my task any easier, disturbing the small chakra pulses my kikai bugs create. The scene is distorted, at best." Koh exhaled noticeably. "But do not fret, I believe I've found the office we were searching for. However it is not so much an office as it is a headquarters to the ninja from Oto."

Harry frowned. "I guess it makes sense. Koh, I want you to take some rest and at your earliest convenience tag each and everyone of those ninja with one of your bugs. Tomorrow we're going to follow them from a distance, they have some really good sensory types and I don't think we should get close to them."

Koh didn't respond to Harry but seemed to relax some. "We will wait for Yuugi here, she should be back in an hour or so. Then we will make a plan of action and see where we will go from there."

It took Yuugi a good hour and a half before she returned from her own expedition. "Did you find anything noteworthy?" Harry asked of the Hyuuga.

Yuugi shook her head. "No, it was all just barren. Despite a few abandoned mines there was nothing." Sitting down Yuugi massaged her calves. "Did either of you discover anything useful?"

"I've found that the town of Kuwain is filled to the brim with Shinobi." At hearing that Yuugi frowned. "Oto-shinobi." Koh specified. "They seem to have some sort of headquarters at the edge of the town, there are currently…" Koh tilted his head as if thinking. "A hundred and fourteen shinobi present there."

Yuugi gasped. "That many? What are they doing here?"

"If I am correct, and I usually am when it comes to theorizing." Harry said smugly. "Than there is no such company as Snow Land Corp. It is all just one big cover-up these Oto-ninja are using to hide their own involvement in this, but even so, they're sloppy. If this land had any organized ninja forces around this place they would've been discovered quickly."

"Are you saying that it is Oto that is selling the flowers?" Yuugi asked.

"That is exactly what I am saying." Harry pointed behind him. "I overheard a conversation between three Oto shinobi, they said that they had a mission here, a mission in which they are working with flowers. I don't believe in coincidence, not when it comes to ninja."

Koh suddenly put his hand up. "Someone is coming."

Harry immediately covered their small camp in a genjutsu. "This genjutsu should hide us for now, if they don't search for us they wont find us. However, the three shinobi I mentioned, they noticed me… so prepare to attack if needed." Harry whispered.

A ninja sped by them, a young boy, not noticing the genjutsu and thus not noticing the three chuunin. All three of them held their breath, as another ninja this time a girl with long hair and extremely pale skin ran past them, just a few meters away. A third ninja soon came as well, the ninja unlike the previous two stopped moving and looked around herself. Harry had to put his arm on Yuugi to keep her from attacking.

The Kunoichi narrowed her eyes, she knew something wasn't quite right but after a bird flew up from behind her screeching loudly she exhaled, relieved. A second later she was also gone. The three Konoha ninja stayed still for a good minute. "That was some smart thinking, Koh."

"Thank you." Koh replied. "I was lucky enough to sense the bird, my companions were eager enough to 'bug' it somewhat."

Harry snickered at the joke. "Those three, they were the ones that I overheard, the large woman is most likely some sort of sensory type, I guess she must have been able to somehow follow my chakra.

Yuugi activated her Byakugan "They're abo-"

"Yuugi no!" Harry said "Shit… shit.. shit.. They have a sensor Yuugi! They'll know you used chakra now, and they'll turn right back!"

Yuugi looked at Koh and sighed…

"We need to get out of here, now before they show up, I don't feel confident fighting against those three while they have an army not too far from here." Harry stood up, ready to get out of there when Koh pulled him back down.

"Don't worry, Harry. I've jammed the place with my Kikai bugs… Not even a Jounin sensor should be able to get through the subtle chakra network I've woven around us when you created the genjutsu."

"They're still moving away from us, it seems it worked." Yuugi said. "And next time you should be more aware of what happens around you, didn't you notice Koh using the chakra distortion shield?"

Harry looked down… "I might have been too busy worrying about what to do if she noticed us."

* * *

><p>Kakashi had put away his forehead protector as soon as he got close to the town of Kuwain. First he would have to find his target. Which was not a difficult job to do seeing as the client had given Konoha a great amount of details. His target was owner of one of the largest mining companies in the town and also the mayor, a man by the name of Li Inaki. Kakashi wasn't entirely sure why his daughter wanted him dead but he could think of a few reasons, the most likely one being that she would stand to inherit the company and thus the man's riches.<p>

As a ninja it was not Kakashi's place to question the whys. A job was a job and a kill was a kill. Even Konoha, known for it's soft hand in the elemental countries, was just another ninja village with just as much bloodshed as some other villages. Disguised as an unsuspicious young man wearing thick clothing just as the rest of the inhabitants of this town, Kakashi walked through the busy streets of Kuwain.

He wanted to get himself aquatinted with the lay out of the town just to make sure he knew where and when to strike and how to get out of there without anyone seeing him. The town was normal, boring even. The streets were coated by snow and the Kuwainian people seemed to live a normal and happy live. Not usually the place where one would find ninja, yet the place seemed to be packed with them. Genin, chuunin and even some Jounin were walking the busy streets, but as soon as night fell the streets cleared out of non shinobi. Parents kept their children inside, teenagers seemed disapear from sight opting to snog in their own bedrooms instead of Streets were as dead as a fallen tree.

Kakashi wondered from which village the shinobi were; their forehead protector proudly showcased a music note. 'Why would my contractor hire me when this town obviously has a ninja village much closer by?' Kakashi wondered.


	30. Harvesting under the frozen sun part 2

**Fast update! I'm kind of shocked by how few of you readers actually reviewed last chapter, with a good 2000 hits I expected more feedback, just tell me if you liked something or didn't like something what you expect to happen next. Seriously, I really appreciate reviews.**

**That aside; this chapter brings us halfway into this arc**

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><p><p>

**Chapter 29: ****Harvesting under the frozen sun part 2**

It had been a week since she had asked Konoha for help, but so far nothing had happened. Rukia had heard of three other people going missing, this time even a child. Her father was once again in the mayor's house working late. Before, she would've gone over there and insisted her father come home and get some sleep.

But after his decision to allow them in, she couldn't look him straight in the eye. Her father had doomed this town. She had pleaded with him, had begged him to end this. But her father had slapped her cheek, had told her she was too young to understand.

Rukia caressed her own cheek while looking at a picture of her father while her mother was still alive. "Perhaps father, you've just grown too old."

* * *

><p>Sasuke was sitting in the library, Harry had it reorganized- or better said chaosnized. Nothing was where it was supposed to be. And so it had taken Sasuke two long evenings before he had found the answer to Naruto's problems.<p>

They had tried to think of a solution themselves but it was hopeless. Naruto wasn't capable of making a bunshin, no matter how they tried to skew it. They had even gone so far as searching their answer in seals. They tried to write it out on chakra sensitive paper and poured chakra through a scroll filled with seals. It had taken them a good four days, and while a clone appeared it had failed.

They had tried it again, the jutsu formula wasn't easy to decipher and write down; it was possible they had made a mistake. But even the second try; which they had triple checked had not succeeded when Naruto poured his chakra through it. "Sasuke, perhaps I'm just not meant to become an awesome ninja." Naruto sighed.

"Nonsense. I've personally trained you, you are better than anyone in our class beside me. You can water walk! You can throw shuriken, blindfolded and still hit your mark. No Naruto, you and I will become ninja together or so help me god we will not become ninja at all." Sasuke said frustrated. "Besides, the seal-array worked perfectly for me, we didn't do anything wrong! We will find a way Naruto, you and I together can overcome this."

Naruto perked up at this. "You're right! I can do this!" struck with sudden enthusiasm Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs "Bunshin no jutsu." But just as always Naruto's hope was crushed by the failed bunshin.

"Perhaps we can't overcome it all on our own though…If Haru was here he'd know what to do." Sasuke gritted his teeth. "But seeing as he is on a mission, we should ask someone else. He once introduced me this Jounin, Hatake Kakashi. I'm sure that if we ask him he will help us."

"Why would a Jounin help us?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke smiled slyly. "Because he owes me."

Naruto looked sceptically at the Uchiha. "Really?"

"Yeah, I'll go talk to him first thing tomorrow. I know where he lives." Sasuke said before standing up. "I'm done sitting around here, you want to spar?"

* * *

><p>"How do you mean they just disappeared?" Harry asked of Koh.<p>

"Just what I said, one moment they were there, the next they weren't." Koh explained as if it was one of the most normal things to happen. "I suspect they've entered an extremely chakra enriched place, Perhaps someone is using a genjutsu blocking me from receiving any coordinates from my kikai bugs or perhaps they found and killed her…"

"You think they know that you are tailing them?" Yuugi asked.

"No, it is unlikely I would've been informed of a death of one of my colony, especially a female bug as strong as her." Koh readjusted his sunglasses. "Perhaps they actually disappeared, I can only sense my bugs if they are within a certain radius. If they managed to go from where they were to a place outside of my range within a Nano-second I would have lost her as well. It is not unlike when Haru here uses his body-popping over a long distance."

Harry shook his head. "I doubt anyone other than I is capable of something like that, especially not a regular genin. No your first guess is more likely a reason." Frowning he looked at Yuugi. "Can you use your Byakugan to check it out?"

Yuugi nodded while veins started to throb on the sides of her face. "It isn't a genjutsu, it's something else. It looks like a big bank of mist only filled with chakra. It's hard to distinguish between the mist and the genin…" a smile crept on her face. "But not impossible."

"Koh, keep up your chakra distortion net. Yuugi, from here on out we'll rely on your eyes to guide us." Harry said as the three chuunin started walking again.

After walking for half a kilometre Harry could see the mist Yuugi had described. "This is definitely not a natural occurrence." Activating his own dou-jutsu Harry tried to find out just what it was they were about to enter. "It's not a genjutsu, its real mist. But saturated with chakra… I don't know if whoever is using this can sense people entering it and keep track of them but I am not willing go in on the assumption that it doesn't…"

"Then how shall we proceed?" Yuugi asked. "This mist encompasses the entire side of this mountain. It's huge; whoever is causing this must have some serious chakra at their fingers."

"Well perhaps a little bit of wind can help us here?" Harry wondered.

"Perhaps, but I am certain they would notice the disturbance. I suggest doing something more practical. We send in a shadow clone." Koh suggested.

Harry tilted his head to its left. "But wouldn't they notice a shadow clone as easily as one of us? That kind of defeats the purpose."

Shaking his head Koh explained "That is not the case, why? Because a shadow clone can be manipulated to such an extent that it doesn't feel like a human or someone with chakra."

"You want me to create an empty clone? Hmm, I guess I could try… It's not easy. I'd have to keep it solid yet nearly devoid of chakra, and I'm guessing a human form would be noticed too soon, it would need to be henge'd… yes… yes that could work, tricky but not impossible." Harry mumbled to himself. "You are sly my friend. And I love it!"

"Kage bunshin no jutsu." Harry said and beside him a clone of himself appeared. "You know what to do?" Harry asked of his clone, which nodded. "Good." Putting his hand on the clone's head Harry closed his eyes and concentrated. "Let's hope this works… Henge!" His clone changed with a puff of smoke in to an eagle. "Stay silent and dispel yourself when you have enough information."

The eagle nodded and with a few strong beats of wings it soon was swallowed by the thick mist. "And now we wait." Harry said taking out a large scroll and scribbling small kanji down.

Yuugi sat next Harry, trying to peek at the scroll. The seal that was being drawn looked complex and she didn't want to hear just what Harry was designing, so she just leaned back and made herself at ease. "And now we wait."

* * *

><p>In Kakashi's eye the Daimyo was not a well-guarded man. Even at the best of times there were easy ways to get to him. The man had only one obvious security measure: a big guy that stood outside of his office. And despite not being a thrill seeking shinobi Kakashi felt somewhat let down. 'They could have sent someone less experienced for such an easy target.' he had thought more than once.<p>

Currently there were nine ways he could kill the man from the point he was crouching without the Daimyo even noticing his own death. Two ways he could make the man kill himself without anyone be the wiser. But Kakashi preferred to be more personal when it came to assassination; People deserved to know who killed them, deserved to look their murderer into the eyes and know they had fallen to the hand of a shinobi.

Currently Mr Li was sitting behind his desk, the office was empty, his desk even more so. The man opened one of his many drawers and took out a picture frame. From where Kakashi was hiding he couldn't see who or what was in the picture but he could make an educated guess.

Kakashi had investigated in the wealthy Daimyo. Apparently a few years ago his wife had died, a sad tale if the old lecher in the pub was to be believed. It had been a long few months, while his wife lie on her death bed; the daimyo never left his house in order to stay with her. The Daimyo hadn't left his house in order to stay with his wife. And then she had died. No one knew just what killed her, not even the doctor who had cared for her. Kakashi had looked through the files Doctor Imaou had kept on Mrs Li, but they were riddled with unexplainable symptoms. Bleedings in the ear. Coughing up slime, large sores appearing on her skin, hair falling out. The list was long; and Kakashi would've winced but he had no time to waste feeling sorry for the woman.

No, Kakashi had to focus all his attention and spend all of his time on finding out more about his target. Kakashi had morals after all. He didn't kill a person he knew nothing of, and would kill them painlessly and make sure they saw their killer. Kakashi knew he would be punished for his deeds in the next life; he deserved it when the time came.

Suddenly the Daimyo put away the picture frame and walked out of the office. It took three minutes before Kakashi saw the man again, leaving the town's house and walking the road alone. He was passed by two shinobi whom he greeted without any affection, it seemed almost forced. No, it didn't seem forced; the man was cowed into greeting them. Interesting; he would file that away, it might be important.

Kakashi followed his target; he was wide open. So easy to kill, too easy to kill. No man that was as important as his target was would be without enemies. Why did this man deem it safe enough for him to walk around without any safety detail? Kakashi silently sighed, it didn't really matter. He had seen the man's route, he had taken it now for two days in a row. That meant there was a pattern, and through this pattern Kakashi knew when and how Inu would strike. Kakashi put on his dog mask and disappeared further into the shadows.

* * *

><p>Up in the air above snowy mountains an eagle circled. Its keen eyes searching for prey; little rodents, small birds. The eagle didn't screech, didn't cackle; it was a silent killer high in the air. But it was no danger for any human, least of all shinobi and thus the bird didn't register with most of the people on the ground.<p>

They didn't notice it looking at them, they didn't notice it diving down only to come up again without any dead little animals. They didn't notice just how unnatural it was for a bird like that to appear this far into the land of snow.

And so it happened that Harry smirked when the eagle disappeared into the mist and vanished; as if just fading from existence. The three Konoha chuunin had hidden themselves, away from prying eyes, listening ears, and other senses that were less easily noticed. "Yuugi, Koh; it seems to have worked."

Both teammates looked at Harry, expectantly waiting for his report. "The entire mountain from here to here," Harry circled a large portion of the mountain on a makeshift map. "is hidden in the thick mist." Both Yuugi and Koh nodded; they had figured as much. "However that doesn't seem to be everything, when the clone ventured into some of the thicker mist he noticed open fields and hot springs, but I am pretty sure that there were a lot of genjutsu woven on that exact point."

"What makes you conclude that, Harry?" Koh asked.

"Because whoever made the genjutsu didn't make it perfectly. It looked out of place, it didn't quite make sense. There were a lot of details that didn't add up, the steam coming of the water went up, straight. Even though the clone was flapping his wings. In truth it is an impressive technique that if someone actually put the effort in it could've fooled even me." Harry looked at Yuugi. "The grounds they've covered though are huge. That hot spring alone was easily the size of three training fields."

Yuugi frowned. "Did you find any evidence pertaining to the Klamath Weed being present there?"

"No, I could hardly see the ground. Besides I think they've covered the fields with the flowers with those genjutsu. I've seen two of these hot springs." Harry brushed his hand through his hair and sighed. "But there might be more genjutsu cast all over this mountain that are not as easily noticed."

"So basically what you're reporting to us is that you found out nothing other than within the thick mist are a multitude of genjutsu of unknown quantity and quality?' Yuugi folded her arms over each other. "I say we try this in another way, let's go in. If, and that is a big if, we get caught Harry here can body pop us away. Besides from what we've seen entering and leaving this place so far are mostly genin."

"I have to advise against that course of action." Koh rebutted making Harry nod. "Yuugi, there is no telling what kind of forces are in there."

"Than what do you 'advise'?" Yuugi spat back, her temper rising.

Koh remained calm though "I suggest we create some bad weather. Perhaps Harry's first idea wasn't as crazy as we thought."

"You seriously want to create a snowstorm? You realize that there is a town down in that valley, we can't just mess with the climate and hope for the best." Yuugi asked incredulously.

Harry placed his hand on Yuugi's shoulder, trying to calm her down. "No, Koh; Yuugi is right. If we want to create something strong enough to get rid of the mist we'd also endanger everyone in a ten kilometre radius. I won't allow that."

"If we can't go in and we can't get rid of the mist… then what do you suggest?"

"I suggest we find our answers elsewhere. I believe it's time for us to go undercover and find out what the townspeople of Kuwain know about these mountains."

* * *

><p>Two days they had tried to pry information about the mountains from the town's people but neither Harry nor Yuugi or Koh had succeeded in getting anything but evasive answers. "There is something seriously messed up with this place. It is as if those mountains don't even exist to them." Harry said. "All I get is some bull shit about them not going out of the town…"<p>

"It is indeed suspicious, even when mentioned directly they try to get out of talking about it." Koh took off his sunglasses and polished them. "My colony noticed that there are a lot of people while being questioned that seemed to panic, overcome by fear."

"I've noticed that too." Yuugi said. "The best I got out of an old drunk was that the mountains will get you killed if the cold doesn't."

"That's more than what I got out of them…" Harry looked over to town frowning. "What happened when you tried to pry more out of the drunk?"

Yuugi looked away. "He passed out on me."

"On you?" Koh asked.

"Yes on me, fell right over; had to push him off myself."

"I did hear something else that might be interesting." Harry said. "It seems the Daimyo died, hung himself last night in his own bedroom closet." Harry hadn't even finished his own sentence before all three of them got up, kunai and other weapons ready to strike as they noticed someone in the bushes behind them.

"What a coincidence; to think I'd see my three favourite students in such a remote little place as Kuwain." A voice told them. "Now put your weapons down, you wouldn't want to hurt little old me, now would you?" From out of a shadowed bush came Hatake Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Yuugi asked. "What are you doing here?"

Harry however didn't seem so trustworthy of the appearance of the man. Within a moment he had body popped himself behind the Jounin one kunai ready to pierce through his neck and another one in his free hand while he had attached himself with his legs around the man's waist.

"Tell me something only Hatake Kakashi would know." Harry said, a threat accompanying his tone.

"You've surely gotten paranoid out here in the snow. Good job though, I can only be happy you're not too trusting of someone coming out of nowhere." Kakashi took his time to come up with something only he knew. "On the day your team left on your current mission you didn't say farewell to me."

"Not good enough." Harry barked out, his kunai now actually touching Kakashi's neck.

"When Rin was killed by Orochimaru you warned us." Kakashi said, his voice low.

Yuugi and Koh both looked at Harry nodding. "Hello Kakashi-sensei." Harry said jumping off the man. "Now what are you doing here?"

Kakashi made himself comfortable, sitting next to Yuugi. "I can't disclose that. I can tell you, however, that the Daimyo didn't die because he hung himself without help."

The three chuunin took that news in with various reactions. One gasped, the other nodded and one other stayed silent. "How did you find us? Koh has been keeping us within his chakra distortion net." Harry prodded of the Jounin.

Kakashi smiled, the cloth of his mask rippling. "I was at a bar, drinking away the night before when suddenly my favourite Kunoichi started talking to me, asking questions about the mountains in the east." At that Yuugi's eyes widened and she started to blush. "From there I just followed you and I couldn't help but overhear you three are having some trouble with a certain mission." Here Kakashi looked at Harry. "Mind telling me what it is?"

Harry looked at Koh and Yuugi, silently asking them if they wanted to disclose that information. "We've been sent on a mission to find out how and where a certain corporation is getting Klamath Weed. However we've been thrown a curve ball."

"Because that certain corporation is led by ninja and you can't pass unnoticed into the mountains to find out just what it is they do." Kakashi finished.

Yuugi quirked her eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

Kakashi sighed. "To explain that I need to tell you something that never happened and something that you will need to not hear from me when asked by the Hokage."

All three chuunin nodded, understanding their sensei's request.

"It all started when Inu entered a Daimyo's house…"

* * *

><p>Entering through one of the open, yet unused, chimneys that the Daimyo's house had plenty of, Kakashi had made his way into his target's home. The room he had found his way into was dark; it looked like a living room, and probably was.<p>

Kakashi knew how to stay silent, so he carefully made his way through the enormous building the Daimyo and his daughter lived in. It felt somewhat awkward to kill a father while his child was in the same building sleeping. Though the fact that said child had ordered the kill made it somewhat less weird.

Kakashi went up the stairs, the steps would've given away his position. He had observed from outside the house that the floorboards were made of old wood and would creak when being touched; Kakashi's solution was to exude chakra from his feet that would serve as a buffer between him and the wood, practically making him as light as a feather.

Passing the bedroom of his client, Kakashi could see the room where the deed would happen. Kakashi was used to wearing his skin tight mask but it had been a while since he had put on his Anbu mask; it felt different, it made him feel different. It made him feel like Inu.

There was no one else in the house other than himself, his client, and his target. So Kakashi entered the master bedroom without anyone the wiser. Kakashi took out a piece of paper he had prepared for this special occasion. The paper had a single kanji written on it, the kanji was the compressed form of a hundred and twenty seal array, it read Silence.

The Daimyo was sleeping soundly, snores escaped every other second from the man but as soon as Kakashi activated the seal array on the piece of paper the Daimyo became silent. No sound of breathing, no sound of snores going unnoticed. Nothing.

Kakashi shook the man awake and closed his normal eye to reveal a spinning red orb. The wealthy business man sat upright instantly and looked at Kakashi with wide eyes, fearful eyes. Mr Li wanted to scream but no sound escaped from his lips, no words formed, the only thing that he succeeded in was emptying his lungs.

Kakashi hadn't let the man go on like that though because as soon as the rich man noticed the red eye of Kakashi he stopped. The Sharingan was spinning fast, faster than it did when copying a technique, fast enough to hypnotize someone. "You want to tell me your name." Kakashi whispered.

The mayor couldn't talk but tried to anyway; he mouthed his name making Kakashi nod. "I am sorry Mister Li: you are going to hang yourself tonight." The man looked at him with vacant eyes. Kakashi gave the man the order "You want to kill yourself. First you must write a note to your loved ones, explain them how you are tired of living without your wife, without the love of your life. You will write that you are sorry, but that you just can't go on." Kakashi ended his commanding whisper and let the rich man write his suicide note on his nightstand.

It took the Daimyo only ten minutes to pen it. Kakashi made the man look in his Sharingan again. "You want to kill yourself, and the fastest way is to simply hang yourself." Mr Li seemed to struggle with that suggestion but did so anyway. He grabbed a chair and took it to his walk-in-closet. Grabbing one of his numerous ties, he perfectly made a hangman's knot.

Kakashi followed each of the man's movements with great care. The Sharingan was fabled throughout the ninja world for its power to predict someone's movement or copy a jutsu. But Kakashi had found out that the Sharingan's most lethal and destructive power was the power of supreme suggestion; the power to hypnotize anyone who was weak enough of mind to fall prey to it.

Mr Li climbed on the chair, his knees were wobbling but he prepared his own death perfectly. As the tie was around his neck Kakashi pulled of his mask allowing the mayor one last glance at the man who had actually killed him; a long second went by before the man pushed away the chair and lost his life to the Sharingan.

Kakashi put his mask back on. The mask made him feel different, made him feel like Inu. And that was why when he killed someone, he revealed his face. Because in the end it was Kakashi that killed them, not Inu.

* * *

><p>While a dead man was in the closet Kakashi went to his client. It was half past two and his client was fast asleep. Kakashi opened the door and woke up Li Rukia who stared at him with bleary eyes. "Li Rukia. My name is… Inu. The assassination was successful, your father hung himself."<p>

Bleary eyes turned into watery eyes as the young woman started to cry. "Kami, I am so sorry." A good few seconds later she wiped away the tears and manned up. "You must think I am heartless, ordering the death of my own father?"

Kakashi shook his head. "I am a shinobi; it is not my job to think about such things."

"Very well. The payment is in the third drawer under a fake bottom." She said pointing at a nightstand on the other side of her bed.

Nodding Kakashi opened the drawer and lifted the fake bottom and took out the large amount of money this mission had cost. "Thank you." Kakashi said before turning around to leave.

"I had a reason you know; it wasn't just for personal gain." She said quickly, making Kakashi spin around. He tilted his head to the side as if wondering what she meant. "My father used to be a good man, a good father, a good Daimyo but when my mother died he didn't seem to care anymore. He seemed to only care about money. He started to take over a lot of small businesses, he owns… owned half this town in a matter of months. It wasn't so bad I thought, you know? People still had their jobs, we were saddened by the loss of my mother but we lived happy lives despite of that. But then that man showed up, that ninja. He offered my father a partnership if my father allowed the ninja's village to buy the mountain in the east." Rukia shook her head. "Before they came, it was a place where wild animals lived; but now it is covered in mist and any and all who enter or come close disappear. I've seen my own classmates just not come home from hunting, they disappear and it's all because my father allowed them in. Families ripped apart for money? It is not I that is heartless; it is my father!" she pleaded.

"People disappear?" Kakashi wondered out loud.

Quickly Rukia moved to the side of her bed, sitting upright. "Yes. Whatever it is they do in those mountains; whatever those wretched ninja do, it is obviously worth killing over."

"You do not know what it is they do?"

Rukia shook her head. "No, my father hasn't told me. All I know is that they bought the entire mountain and they've kept it away from prying eyes. Made it impenetrable." Rukia waited for Inu to say something, when he didn't she continued. "The townspeople are scared, we can't do anything. We couldn't do anything. But with my father gone someone less interested in money can take over the Daimyo's office. A mayor that won't protect those… those criminals, I'd even award someone who could get rid of them." Rukia looked at Inu expectantly.

Kakashi shook his head. "I can't just accept a mission; Li Rukia. Good evening and good luck is the best I can do for you."

Rukia wanted to grab Inu's sleeve, beg him to help her people, beg him to help her. But the shinobi was already gone, the door closed within the blink of an eye.

* * *

><p>"So Oto doesn't originate from these lands; that's at least something." Yuugi folded her arms. "Means we don't have sneak around unnoticed by any more than the one hundred and seventy-six ninja we've counted so far." She pointed at Harry. "You sure we don't need backup from Konoha for this?"<p>

"Well, we've got Kakashi here now to help us." Looking at Kakashi he saw the Jounin shake his head. "Or not?"

"I can't stay. I need to be back as soon as possible. Overstayed my welcome actually… You three are on your own for this one." Kakashi stood up. "But if you want my advice: go from under, the mist won't reach you there."

Koh stood up as well and shook Kakashi's hand. "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei."

After all saying goodbye to their old sensei the three chuunin went back to thinking up a plan. "Going from under… So I guess Kakashi-sensei meant that we should use earth manipulating jutsu to get in and out." Harry said.

Koh nodded." It is probable that the mist jutsu is capable of noticing people coming in and going out. But as long as the amount of people inside the mist stays the same they probably won't notice the difference in chakra."

Yuugi's eyes widened as Koh's plan got through to her. "You want Harry to use the hidden mole jutsu and replace one of the ninja inside?"

"I am assuming the mist jutsu is not capable of differentiating between chakra from one person and another, why? Because to be capable of doing such would need intent, concentration and they've kept up the mists for a good few months now; it is highly unlikely that they have the resources to devote time and chakra to keep track of the people inside the mist bank. Kakashi-sensei's insight into this was most helpful." Koh explained.

Harry nodded. "Yes; but that would mean I'd be the only one in there… I can't take either of you two with me while doing that."

"True, but you are best suited for infiltrating out the three of us. I have faith in your abilities. Yuugi and I shall, in the meantime, stay here. I propose you body pop to this exact location if you are in trouble." Koh readjusted his sunglasses. "I'll keep this place blocked from any chakra-sensory type of techniques."

Harry grinned. "Who's the team captain here Koh? But you're right. Yuugi, you okay with this?"

Yuugi nodded, her eyes slightly narrowed. "Sure, you're the only one out of the three of us capable of getting in there like that. It is only… _logical_."

* * *

><p>Sasuke knocked on the Jounin's door for the fifth time. Harry had told Sasuke that the man was lazy; so perhaps he just didn't feel like opening the door. 'If he doesn't open it after the sixth time; I'll just go back home.'<p>

Naruto, in the meantime, was shaking with excitement. "Sasuke, you know what it means if he can teach me the jutsu right?"

"Yes, I know." Sasuke sighed and knocked for the sixth time. "If he doesn't open we'll have to find you another way…" The door remained closed and so Sasuke turned around and left with Naruto, hoping to find another way to get 'Blondie' to learn the bunshin.

* * *

><p>The hidden mole jutsu, so Harry found out, was not meant to travel through frozen ground with. Normally you would soften the earth around you. The speed which with you could move underground was as fast as you could make the earth soft. However, when frozen solid it was clearly a whole lot more difficult to soften up. Already Harry wasted a good twenty minutes to set a record pace of a meter every minute. The problem was, you couldn't stop for a breather, and so Harry had to use more chakra to make tiny tubes from his place under the surface where hardly any oxygen was to above the surface where it was plentiful.<p>

Harry eventually made it to a place where he could feel the ground pounding as footsteps vibrated through the earth. Waiting for the ninja to be directly above him Harry spent his time with thinking about ways he would go about his search. But no sooner had he visualized what he would do had the ninja placed his foot directly on the spot Harry had planned for.

Within a second Harry's hand shot out of the ground and dragged the unsuspecting ninja down. From there it wasn't difficult to disable the ninja rather effectively. Another second later, Harry appeared above the ground. Step one had been successful. Step two would be to find one of the genjutsu covered spots.

The Sharingan would be a good tool to find exactly where the genjutsu started and where they ended, but if he didn't manage the chakra inside of his eyes with great care, any sensory type of ninja worth half their salary would be on him in a second. The Sharingan was a powerful tool, but the chakra it passively built up while it was used wasn't really helpful in this situation.

The thick mist was hard to see through, but not impossible. Harry could see a good eight meter ahead of him, taking out a compass Harry went into the direction where his eagle clone had found the hot spring. And so began Harry's search, one that took far longer than he had expected. Because it wasn't until a long three hours later that he found what he searched for.

Before him was a huge hot spring, steam was rising and if he didn't know any better the fog all around him came from those hot springs. But Harry did know better and as his eyes flashed red the genjutsu's hold over him broke and Harry saw the monstrosity that had best be left hidden.

"Damn, this is worse than I could've expected." With the genjutsu no longer fooling Harry's sight he could see that before him were a dozen sickly looking children, scrapes on their faces and arms. Their skin blue from the cold and dirty from the labour they had been performing. The children were weeding flowers with their bare hands. The boy closest to Harry, whom he could see the clearest, was carefully evading sharp thorns while first pulling off fruit of the plant and later, after delicately putting the fruit in a basket filled to the brim with more of those fruit, snapping the twigs with flowers attached to them and placing those in another basket.

'This must be the pluckings… this is horrible, children snatched away from their homes. Forced to work under these circumstances. Why aren't clothed properly? What kind of sick person could do this?' Harry's stomach turned. 'They must be nearly freezing to death.'

Despite the scene being horrible, Harry could not help but keep looking as the strangest thing happened. After the boy in front of him was done with the plant he pulled it out, roots and all and planted a seed he had in a sack. Planting the seed the boy went to the next plant, while in an unnatural pace another plant grew where the boy had planted one. 'This is some sort of mass production…'

The boy looked so dead in his eyes, only seven years old and already condemned to such a fate, it felt wrong, so utterly wrong.

Harry wanted to help these children, wanted to wreak havoc on whoever had thought himself above the lives of these children. 'It's a wonder they're still alive.' Harry said to himself before he noticed a small tube inserted into the boy's nose. Purple fluid was going through it every few minutes. Harry looked at the other ones, in the back was a women, she didn't seemed to fare much better; her fingers were frostbitten but she didn't seem to care. She kept on working and every time the purple fluid got into her body she shivered in.. in pleasure.

'I don't know what is going on here, but I don't care that the mission is only to find out where and how. But this needs to stop. These people are being used, are being drugged… They're hardly living anymore: they are merely puppets, slaves to the purple fluid.' Harry's body shook in anger, he wanted to lash out but what could he do against an army? Harry silently sighed; he hadn't lived all of his years to give into a sudden urge; no he would plan to free these children. He would plan to stop these practices. And he would succeed.

As Harry, with great speed, made his way back to the meeting place another ninja entered the mist covered mountain. Someone with the power to thwart any plans that might dissuade his own.

* * *

><p>Hiruzen was sitting in the place he usually sat at this time of day: behind his desk. It was a normal day, the council had discussed village affairs for a good hour and once again had not said much. The stack of paperwork had been piled up high when he came in the office in the morning and had now all been diminished.<p>

And as he always did Hiruzen took out a crystal ball. It had been a jutsu he had created himself a good few years ago. At first he had thought to use it to be able to keep watch over the entire village by himself should the need be there. However, he had found a much better use for it now. Keeping track of a promise he had made eleven years ago. Keeping Naruto safe.

Putting the crystal ball in its stand, Hiruzen carefully made the connection with the barriers around Konoha. With Hiruzen's chakra imbued into the ball an image came alive, at first of the entire village; but slowly, as the old hokage willed it, it closed in on a blonde boy. No sound accompanied the images he saw but he hadn't been a ninja for nothing, he could read lips well enough.

Naruto was walking with his friend, the Uchiha boy. They had been spending a lot of time the last year or so together. It was a sight that made Sarutobi content with his own decisions; Naruto knew what it meant to have bonds. He was not seen as merely the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. He was not merely a host for a demon, not merely a sacrifice for the village hidden in the leaves. No, Naruto had become his own person, a person with goals and friends. Naruto in the last two years had grown from a boy that was unruly to a boy that was just too energetic. He was growing into a fine young man.

However, the frown on the boy's face wasn't something Hiruzen wished to see. It took some time before he understood what was wrong. Hiruzen frowned, he had tried not to interfere too much in the boy's life. A small smile found his way to the Hopkage's face, an idea had just formed. "But then again, I am an old man, perhaps I am starting to forget things?

The Hokage put away the crystal ball and got out of his office. Hiruzen had just the thing for young Naruto to get out of his current predicament. Five minutes later the elder Sarutobi opened a vault in which lay hundreds, if not thousands of valuable objects. Little knick knacks he had collected during his tenure as Hokage. The vault was built next to the Hokage's legislative building and didn't look like a vault. No, to anyone 'not in the know', it looked like just another storage room, but within this room lay a single scroll. A scroll with knowledge he himself had forbidden from being spread.

An hour later, after he had visited Naruto to give the boy his monthly allowance he accidentally forgot to pick up the scroll which he had placed next to him on the couch.

* * *

><p>"Koh, he's coming." Yuugi said.<p>

Koh tilted his head to the side. "He's back earlier than I had anticipated."

It was two minutes later that both Koh and Yuugi were confronted with a kind of Uchiha Haru they hadn't seen before. The small boy's eyes seemed ablaze, he spat his words, he was beyond anger. He was furious. "I succeeded in finding out just what it that they are trying to hide so desperately." Harry's hands were clenched in fists. "It is inhuman what they've done, children, mere children!" Harry kicked the snow, making it fly around.

Yuugi pulled Harry down, making him sit on one of the fallen trees they had been using as chairs. "Calm down Harry."

Harry narrowed his eyes and raised his voice. "You don't understand, I can't. What they're doing. It's…. it's beyond horrible, beyond forgiveness."

"Well you shall have to." Yuugi told the smaller chuunin. "You are a chuunin, there is no time or place for you to lose you temper while on a mission."

Harry inhaled slowly, trying to calm himself down, he knew Yuugi was right. " I had to tell myself exactly that all the way here." saying those words made him think back of what he saw and the rage took over once more. "I would've killed them all before you know, would've transfigured them into cockroaches and danced on their tiny legs as their souls would've been thrown into the pits of hell." Harry had raised himself to his full height, his fists started to bleed as nails dug into his flesh.

With widened eyes Yuugi swallowed, she'd never seen her teammate like that before. She looked at Koh, hoping he would reason with the boy. Koh did exactly that. "Uchiha Haru, sit down. Calm yourself. You are talking nonsense, letting feelings take over. It is obvious something of great injustice has appeared before your eyes. But now is not the time nor the place to give in to a temper tantrum. You will sit and you will calm down."

Yuugi shuddered at the cool tone Koh had used. Apparently it also had effect on Harry, who looked down at his feet ashamed. He shook his head and slowly sat down. "I am sorry for that, you're right…"

"Good, now tell us; did we succeed in our mission?" Yuugi relaxed as Harry didn't bite her head of as soon as she asked that question.

Harry hunched slightly over."We did. We were correct in assuming that the mist was there to hide the fields on which they get their Klamath Weed."

"That is good news, we can send the Hokage the information we've gathered so our client can pay." Koh said. "I think that we best let you use your body pop jutsu and get it over with as soon as possible."

Harry shook his head. "No."

"The mission comes first Harry, whatever you saw there; it is not our responsibility to take care of it, not only that but it isn't even within our rights. We are in a foreign country; we aren't even supposed to be here. If anyone with political weight found out about this Konboha can get in trouble." Yuugi explained. "The mission comes first. Before everything else Harry."

"I can't let what I see go like that Yuugi, Koh. They have drugged children, women and men. What I saw weren't even humans anymore, it were mere caskets, puppets that did what they were told as long as they got their 'stuff' through a tube. A seven year old boy with frostbitten fingers working for God knows how long in these temperatures! A child, Yuugi; a child no older than I!" Harry shivered. "Can you Imagine that? Can you imagine being dragged away from your family, become an addict and work the rest of your life, which probably won't be long, on a mountain, picking flowers and fruit?"

"I understand Harry, it is difficult; you're still young..." Yuugi started but whatever she wanted to say Harry didn't let her finish.

"No. You're too young!" Harry said before what he said caught on with him. Looking at Koh he tried to pedal back. "Look guys, I know first hand what it is like to grow up without parents; it sucks. But I was surrounded by people that loved me and took care of me. I can't just walk away from here without doing everything I can to make sure every child, every person out there in that mist can go back home, back to the people they love."

"Sorry Harry, I understand you, I really do. But we are shinobi of Kohoha. We belong to the land of Fire. Not the land of Snow. It is considered treason to do what you want to do, shinobi have been declared missing nin for less." Yuugi took a kunai in her hand. "Are you willing to leave Konoha over this? Go ahead and slash your forehead protector. Or you can be reasonable and go back to the village with us, report everything you saw to the Hokage and let him make a lawful decision. Who knows, perhaps he'll send an Anbu squad to take care of this here; But Harry think before you do anything."

Koh nodded. "It is indeed procedure to go back to the Hokage and inform him of what has transpired. We are not Jounin; we are not allowed to make decisions like this, we are chuunin and though it is unpleasant we should know our place." Looking at Harry he added "You should know your place."

Harry took a step back. He knew his place, it had been decided for him when he stole the elder wand, it had been decided when he had inherited the cloak of invisibility, it had been decided when he took the resurrection stone in his hand for the first time. He knew his place all too damn well. But Harry also knew that every decision had consequences; and this world was ruthless. Looking ahead Harry saw the mist bank which hid the children, the women and men that had been enslaved to work under dire circumstances. Harry straightened himself, he knew his place and he knew what to do. "I have made my decision."

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><p><strong>AN: So what do you think will happen next? Did you like this chapter or not? leave behind a review!<strong>


	31. Under the frozen moon part 3

**AN: Woah, this chapter went to places I hadn't planned for it to turn to but it feels like the right place to go… I hope you all like it. If not, well that's too bad because DAMN I really really really liked writing it. **

**It was originally two chapters but due to their size decided to post them as one. Anyways, enjoy this chapters and please read the entire bolded part of the AN at the end.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 30: Harvesting under the frozen moon part 3<strong>

"We will inform the Hokage first. Our current mission is done." Harry said, his voice steeled in conviction.

Both Yuugi and Koh breathed out in relieve, tense shoulders relaxing. "But we will come back, no matter what. Pack your stuff, we will leave in one minute."

* * *

><p>Hiruzen had come back from his little visit to Naruto. And was most happy about himself. The scroll he had given the boy would undoubtedly help him, of course the only jutsu the boy would be able to read was the jutsu he had unlocked himself. It wouldn't do to give someone so young access to more jutsu that could level mountains than <em>he<em> was years old.

Sitting in his chair Hiruzen prepared himself to finish his paperwork. It would be a nice and silent afternoon; all genin were on missions, the council had nothing to bother him with, his old teammates had been unusually still the last few weeks, which was only a relieve to him. Yes a quiet afternoon in which he could finally work his way through the last files on his desk.

As he picked the first one up though a loud crack, a small gust of wind and three chuunin stopped his plans.

* * *

><p>Naruto had just let out the Hokage, it was always pleasant when the old man visited him. They had talked for a bit; mostly about what a mess his apartment was and the he needed to clean up.<p>

It was five minutes after the Hokage had left that Naruto decided that perhaps the old man had been right. It wasn't at all because he tripped over his own pants that had been lying on the ground.

He started with his living room, he didn't really have different rooms but the two by two meter space he had claimed as such would suffice. Soon followed the kitchen and the bedroom. When all was neatly shoved under the couch and or bed Naruto noticed something out of place on the couch.

The old man had put the pillow on the wrong side! It was on the left while it belonged on the right to hide the nasty specks of spilled ramen. Putting the pillow back where it belonged Naruto noticed something peculiar.

Behind the pillow lay a single scroll. 'Gramps must have forgotten to take it with him.' Naruto wanted to grab it and bring it back right away to the Hokage but something on it caught his eye. The scroll had a title. "Scroll of forbidden jutsu."

Naruto's fingers started to itch while his curiosity urged him to open the scroll. Picking up the scroll Naruto gave in to said curiosity and slowly unrolled the scroll.

There were a lot of diagrams and almost impossibly small kanji written on it in circles. There was however also one thing he could read. In letters bigger than even the title was written "Shadow clone".

Naruto blinked, and blinked again. Before a huge grin formed on his face as he read the first line under it.

"Unlike the normal bunshin which is illusionary; this variation of the clone jutsu creates a real clone of yourself requiring a substantial amount of chakra…."

* * *

><p>In front of Hiruzen three chuunin stood; they had just given him a report. They had been successful in their mission, with time to spare however the message they had given him was not as joyful.<p>

It was in moments like this that his age crept up to him; he had seen what could happen when a hidden village enslaved normal citizens for nefarious means. "Are you sure of this?" He asked of them.

"Yes sir." The youngest of the three chuunin said.

Opening one of his many drawers Hiruzen took out his pipe and slowly put it to his mouth. His pipe always helped him calm down and make decisions much more patiently. He lit it on fire and the tobacco shared his relaxing properties almost immediately. "Hmm." Smoke started to slowly rise out of the wooden pipe while Hiruzen went over the information he had just gotten.

"There is nothing I can officially do, every mission in the land of snow is a mission that has to be paid for with vast amounts of money. The land of snow falls under protection of not one feudal lord but is divided in towns. Each town has its own mayor, its own rules. More than once hidden villages have been reprimanded severely for interfering in those lands." Hiruzen closed his eyes. "Our feudal lord would never agree with sending ninja into the land of snow if we didn't benefit from it greatly."

"But sir, surely there are-" Uchiha Haru started.

"No, chuunin." The Hokage said cutting the boy off. "We are not in a state of war; my will is not absolute. And not even my own empathy for these people will be great enough to persuade the Feudal lord." Hiruzen looked at Haru with narrowed eyes. "No, your mission into those lands was only green lighted because we were offered more money than we normally do in an entire week."

Yuugi silently gasped at hearing that. Harry stood up. "Then what if I was to request a mission, I can pay good money."

The Hokage pondered on it for a while. "That will not do. There are certain factions in the council that will not dare to send more than a three men cell into those lands. The coal we receive from their mountains is too valuable to risk." Hiruzen sighed. "I am sorry, I cannot officially help you here."

The chuunin before him narrowed his own eyes, his face becoming bland, impossible to read. "Are you saying that, officially you cannot do anything; but if say a certain organization within Konoha still existed that organization could be able to assist me in this?"

A small smile crept onto Hiruzens face. "Officially there is no such organization."

The small chuunin nodded while both of his teammates had confused looks upon their faces. "Thank you sir." Uchiha Haru motioned for both his teammates to follow him as he made his way out of the office. "I will have the report written for you as soon as possible."

Hiruzen called for his assistant to reschedule everything for the rest of that day. "Why sir?" She had asked.

"I have an old friend to visit." Hiruzen put on his hat and robes told his assistant that if anyone searched for him he would be back tomorrow morning. 'But first, I need to contact Jiraiya; Oto sounds like something that needs to be investigated more thoroughly.'

* * *

><p>Harry had walked out of the Hokage's office with Yuugi and Koh mere footsteps behind him. Harry stopped and turned around after Yuugi asked what that last part of the conversation had been about.<p>

"As we all know Konoha is divided in groups, ranks. You have the genin, mere foot soldiers, almost cannon fodder." Yuugi cringed at Harry's words but he went on. "Then you have chuunin, like us; we are the ones that are better than genin, but are expendable. Then you have the Jounin, the elite; people capable of fighting on a level that is on an entire different level than the previous two." Harry looked around him. "The leading man of these groups is the Hokage."

Yuugi and Koh both waited for Harry to go on; they already knew this. "Including the Anbu that is Konoha's official fighting force; that is our army." Harry's voice grew softer. "However, we are ninja, we can't do everything officially. Because of that a certain man came to form root. An organization created to protect Konoha when the Hokage couldn't."

Koh's eyebrows went up. "Elder councilmember, Shimura Danzo!" he said to Yuugi's confusion.

"Yes, Danzo." Harry turned around once more and continued walking in a faster pace. "That man has his fingers dipped in more secrets than there are clouds in the sky."

"So you want to enlist Danzo's help in dismantling the weed fields. But why would he do that? This wouldn't benefit Konoha in any way, we are not threatened by what is happening there." Yuugi asked. "From what I've heard Shimura is not someone to take pity on people, least of all citizens from other countries."

Harry looked back at Yuugi. "I know."

"If Yuugi is correct, then we will not receive the help we seek from this man. Why would you waste time and try anyway?" Koh asked.

"Because that man owes me." Harry quickened his pace, he was now almost running. "He owes me a hell of a lot."

* * *

><p>Danzo was at home, the village was quiet and that meant that soon it wouldn't be. After all, the quiet before the storm always held true. Danzo lazily hanging in his couch, he had put on his Sunday clothes and was enjoying a cup of strawberry flavoured tea that he had been a fan of for almost two years.<p>

Taking a sip of the sweet fluid he had to swallow quickly as someone knocked on his door, Danzo put back his tea on the table and got up. He was halfway up to the door when the knocking repeated itself. Someone was impatient.

Danzo opened the door and in stormed Uchiha Haru, his two teammates making a small bow before following the small boy. He had to repress a small chuckle at the antics of the young boy. 'He still has a lot to learn… decorum being on top of the list.'

The three chuunin made their way to his living room and planted themselves on the couch. Danzo held up his hand when Haru wanted to start talking. "If you so willingly barge in to my house while I am enjoying my cup of tea, the least you can do is join me." Danzo walked to his kitchen and got the three children a cup and filled them to the brim with tea. "Please… drink." He said trying to sound pleasant. The three chuunin gulped and started to sip at the tea.

Uchiha Haru was the first to talk after sipping his tea. "I assume you already know what happened in the land of snow?"

Danzo sat down drinking out of his own cup. He waited until his cup was empty before he answered. "I might have heard a thing or two."

"Then you know why I am here." Haru said.

Danzo shook his head. "You are too straight forward Uchiha Haru. Have you not learned from earlier experiences? Try again, use proper words and I might actually let you ask me what you want from me." Danzo filled his own cup once more and took it in his hands. "Now, Uchiha Haru, who have you brought with you?"

Harry ground his teeth. "These are my teammates; Hyuuga Yuugi and Aburame Koh." Harry took another sip of his tea and relaxed himself; if Danzo wanted to do this, then Harry would give him his sherade. "I am surprised at your choice of tea, what is it?" Harry smiled at the elder man.

Danzo inwardly flinched at the jab. "I was pointed out by a peculiar little boy that Strawberry tea is one of the best teas around." He paused to take another sip. "I've had a private stash of it ever since."

"I didn't think you to be a man to enjoy tea." Harry leaned forward. "Tell me, Danzo, Have you heard the rumours that have been going around lately?"

The old war hawk quirked his eyebrow. "There are always rumours that reach my ear, over time I've come to learn not to put too much stock in them."

"What if I told you a rumour that I've started myself, a rumour that is most certainly a truth."

Danzo put his cup back on the table. "I would listen intently."

Harry told Danzo about what happened in the land of snow; holding nothing back. Danzo didn't seem surprised to hear any of it though. "That is most certainly a thrilling story." Danzo refilled the cups of Koh, Yuugi and Harry. "Now tell me; what made you think I could help you with this?"

Harry took his time to find the right words. "The trees in the land of snow are pine trees, they are planted in the frozen ground and suffer in silence. Their roots are strong, no doubt about it; but not even they can survive the current winter storm without falling over; not unless they get some help from people that are both capable and willing."

Danzo tilted his head back just a little bit making it look like he was literally looking down on the three chuunin in front of him. "The reason Konoha's roots are strong is because they've planted themselves deep into the ground. I see no reason to unearth them."

"The tree has been uprooted before and the tree has never fallen; there is no reason it should do so now." Harry asked.

"The only advice I can give you is to take a vacation; all three of you." Danzo walked to his door and opened it, showing the three chuunin out. "I hear the Northern lands are particularly nice this time of year."

* * *

><p>In Konoha the days lasted long, but night was inevitable, and with night came darkness. It was in that darkness a certain grey haired man knocked on a door.<p>

The door opened by itself as if it was aware of just who had wanted to enter. Sarutobi Hiruzen entered the house of Shimura Danzo and thus the meeting of elders had begun.

Standing in the corner was Mitokado Homura straightening his robes, on the couch Utatane Koharu sat waiting patiently. The Hokage picked up a chair and placed it at the head of the table. Danzo walked down the stairs and sat on the opposite of Hiruzen. Koharu picked up a chair as well and sat on the right of the Hokage and Homura on his left.

"It has been over a decade since we sat like this; equals." Hiruzen started. "A decade in which a lot has happened. A decade in which we drifted apart like the great islands in the west. But from tonight on we will form a pact; a pact as strong as the backbone of a god."

Koharu removed the pins from her hair and placed them on the table. "A decade has passed in which we were fighting more among ourselves than our common enemies. But in this council of elders there is no place for mistrust; old quarels will be put behind us and we shall form a fist that could shatter any stone."

"A decade has past, a decade in which we all grew wiser; a decade in which our minds have not dulled but grown sharper. Tonight we will start a revolution, our time is ending soon; but the next generation will benefit from our decisions." Danzo said.

"Indeed, a decade; ten long years in which we forgot what our place was. Tonight we will erect a pact that will withstand the test of time." Homura placed his elbows on the table, folding his arms over each other.

Danzo leaned forward. "So let's determine the future. Our first point of discussion; Uchiha Haru."

* * *

><p>Koh stood before his two teammates; they had gone to their old training ground the day after being refused any help. "I must admit that the outcome of our conversations with both the Hokage and Shimura Danzo was unsatisfying. Kuwain is a small city, it will not last against the violence that is happening in those mountains."<p>

"Those Oto-ninja won't stay content with the current amount of workers they have, it can't be much longer before they start kidnapping more people." Yuugi added. "But if we want to help… I don't see how we can."

Harry had to agree with Yuugi. "They have an army… all we have is ourselves."

"Then we must be the best we can be; I suggest we go back; infiltrate the place and destroy it from the inside out." Koh folded his arms. "We will succeed, why? Because while they have many, we have each other."

"That is incredibly sappy, Koh." Harry said. "But I can't help but feel, feel like we should help them. I think you're right, infiltration is our best option, dismantle the place as efficiently as possible."

"No, dismantling will not be enough; we must… take care of the problem, not just the symptoms." Yuugi took off her forehead protector and stashed it away in her pocket. "We will go there and color the mountains red in their blood."

Harry felt excitement building up in his gut. Also taking off his forehead protector he raised his hand in front of him. "I'm with you Yuugi, we will attack them; a full frontal assault." Koh placed his hand on top of Harry's, and soon Yuugi's followed. "Then it is official, team twelve will take care of this; we just have to fight smart. It's only half an army we'll be fighting, no sweat." The young Uchiha declared with full conviction while not that far away an old man smiled while staring at a crystal orb.

* * *

><p>Team twelve had decided not to go immediately, they needed to prepare first. Harry knew just what to do; but first he needed to talk to his brother and Naruto. Harry was lucky, both boys were at his home when he returned there.<p>

"Hello." He said as he saw them look up at him from where they sat.

"Harry!" Naruto nearly screamed in excitement. "Wow, you've been gone for a long time! Good that you're back now though."

Sasuke's reaction was a lot less enthusiastic but Harry hadn't expected anything other. "Welcome back Harry." Sasuke walked over to Harry and took his face in both hands. "You look tired, are you okay?"

"Meh, big brother Sasuke. I'm still on a mission, didn't get a lot of sleep." Harry sighed. "But I'm not important at the moment… How have you two been the last two weeks?" Inward Harry felt some sort of ache, he hadn't seen them in two weeks, he hadn't even thought about them. "Been staying out of trouble I hope."

Sasuke looked behind him at Naruto and smiled. "We've been preparing for the Academy exams." He started.

"Yeah, Sasuke and I have been training like non-stop! I am sure we will ace the tests, we even got all the jutsu down." Naruto nearly bounced up and down. "You see, at first I had real trouble making the bunshin clone but we've found a good trick that works like perfectly for me; it is a secret jutsu."

Harry frowned. "What do you mean, a secret jutsu?"

Naruto looked at Sasuke, who nodded back. "Well, you see; the normal bunshin, I just couldn't do it. And we're not entirely sure why." Sasuke wanted to say something but Naruto put his hand over the boy's mouth and continued. "But then I found out about the Shadow clone- "

"The shadow clone?" Harry interrupted. "Do you know how dangerous that jutsu is?"

Naruto looked at him sheepishly. "Don't worry; I can already do it; I can make..." Naruto seemed to search for a word. "Dozens of them, without a problem."

Harry looked at Sasuke who had released himself from Naruto's hand. "Yeah, Naruto can do that jutsu. We worked on it yesterday…"

"You got it in one day?" Harry said in astonishment. "Not bad Naruto."

Naruto rubbed his neck smiling awkwardly. "Thanks."

Harry walked to the couch and sat down procuring a scroll which he rolled out revealing a huge seal. "Sasuke, Naruto; please come sit with me." As Naruto and Sasuke sat to both his sides Harry answered their questions about the scroll. "This scroll is something I made a few weeks ago; it is something of a backup plan. You see as a ninja we sometimes can't rely on just our own strength… That is why I designed this seal. Can either of you recognize it, or any parts of it?" Harry asked.

Naruto shook his head but Sasuke nodded. "These are storage seals." He said pointing at some of the kanji.

"Indeed they are. Storage seals. I want to store something very dangerous in these, something that if released could cause destruction on a scale unheard of." Harry nearly whispered. "See these?" Harry pointed at the red kanji that surrounded the black ones. "These are written in my own blood, written with my own chakra."

Both boys looked at Harry quizzically. " When making seals with your own blood, they become tied to you; they let you summon things no one else can summon. I've created these seals to store something most ninja wouldn't dare to store in a mere scroll. But I'm desperate enough to try and defy the odds."

"What are you getting at Harry?" Sasuke asked.

"This scroll, it is an explosion tag of sorts. An explosion tag that will be filled to the brim with some of the most destructive chakra I've ever encountered." Harry answered.

"Doesn't look or feel dangerous though." Naruto inspected the piece of paper from up close. "Are you sure it works?"

"Oh, it works alright…" Harry said mysteriously. "However at the moment it is without ammo. I need you to pour in chakra, but not just normal chakra." Harry swallowed. "It will be chakra I will take from you with force; if you'll allow me that is."

"Uhm, sure." Naruto said.

Sasuke looked at Harry with narrowed eyes. "Something doesn't add up here Harry. What are you hiding from us?"

Harry swallowed once. "What I'm about to do is illegal, something I was banned from doing. But I have a real good reason to do so anyway." Harry went with his hand through his hair. "I wouldn't ask this of you, Naruto, if it was not a matter of grave importance. It is paramount that the both of you do not reveal what I will do if you allow me to."

"Allow you to do what, Harry?" Sasuke asked more forcefully this time.

"Allow me to enter your soul and take chakra out of it, chakra with the power to rival a hundred Jounin." Harry looked intently at Naruto. "Please, Naruto; if you agree, it won't hurt, you won't even remember what happened as you'll be asleep… If you agree, you'll save thousands of people."

Blue eyes widened. "A hundred Jounin?"

Harry nodded. "At least."

Naruto's went up in to the air. "Yeah; I knew I was awesome!"

The youngest Uchiha quirked his eyebrow at that… Suddenly realization dawned on him. Naruto didn't know about the Kyuubi. "Yeah, you are…" Harry swallowed. How could no one have told Naruto anything about that? What games are being played here? "You are very special Naruto, don't let anyone ever say you aren't." Naruto nodded enthusiastically. "Sasuke, please leave this room… I don't want you to see this."

Sasuke shook his head. "No Harry, I will stay."

Harry sighed. "Sasuke; I don't want you to see me like this, please leave Naruto and me alone. Or better, go to the market and buy some fish for tonight."

Looking at Naruto, Sasuke hoped for his support. Naruto awkwardly looked at Harry in return. "No, Sasuke. I won't do it with you here."

"Why not! I'm your brother, your older brother. You can't tell me what to do." Sasuke said defiantly.

Harry raised himself to his full height; which was still considerably shorter than Sasuke. "You will do as I request." Harry said, his tone was colder than he had meant it to be and Sasuke set a step back as if the words had physically hurt him.

Sasuke stormed out of the house. "I'm sorry." Harry said in a whisper when the door slammed shut.

Naruto still sat on the couch. "You really should be nicer to him, Harry."

"That is not as simple as it sounds." Harry calmed himself down. "He can be quite recalcitrant at times."

"You're telling me? Harry, with you gone; I've been stuck with him!" Naruto said undignified but within seconds his face turned serious. "You haven't been here much. It is difficult for both of us."

Harry looked away. "I am a chuunin, a shinobi. It is my job."

"That doesn't make it better…" Naruto stood up his face brightening. "Anyways; so about my super chakra?"

A grin crept on Harry's face. "I've studied chakra and its properties for a long time. My theory is that chakra is the greater sum consisting of two parts. You have physical and mental energy; which when combined forms chakra." Harry formed the horse seal, making his fingertips glow a bright blue. "An avarage child's chakra capacity is about this large."The chakra sphere around his fingers was only the size of a small peble. "A grown-up male has about thrice that much." The chakra sphere extended to become three times at large. "A scholar has double, so does an athlete. However if an Athlete were to hone his mental energy by meditating it would increase four fold." Harry frowned as the chakra sphere was expanding once again. "Now, if a scholar would start to work out as much as the athlete…" Suddenly the chakra sphere expanded and filled the entire room. "The results could be drastic."

Naruto's mouth was agape. "That is… awesome."

"You have a lot of chakra Naruto, you're smart, you're strong and your chakra benefits from it." Harry said.

"So… I am smarter than Sasuke?" Naruto said slowly.

"No, Sasuke is smarter than you." Harry laughed. "A lot smarter."

Naruto didn't give up though. "Then I must be way stronger than him!" he tried.

Harry shook his head. "No... Sasuke is stronger than you are." Looking at the riddled boy before him Harry decided to reveal a small part of the reason. "You." Harry pointed at Naruto. "You have something only a select few shinobi have. You've been entrusted with a precious gift."

"I have?" Naruto asked quietly, uncertainty coloring his tone.

"Yes, you have Naruto. You have the capacity to love. To cherish and protect everyone around you." Harry stopped the flow of chakra and the blue sphere fell apart.

Naruto huffed. "What kind of gift is that?"

"A gift that is rarer than the rarest of jutsu." Naruto took Naruto's hand in his own. "Your parents must have really loved you." Harry gave Naruto a heartwarming smile making the blonde smile back. 'Why else would the fourth Hokage trust his only son to bear the burden of sacrifice?'

"You really think so?" Naruto asked, fighting back tears in his eyes. Harry slowly gave him a firm nod. "Thanks."

Harry let go of the Uzumaki's hand and rolled the scroll on the table out further. "Naruto I want you to know that what will take place in the next few minutes; will never really happen. No one can know about what I'm about to do. Do you understand?"

Green eyes turned red as they stared intently at Naruto. The slow spinning motion of the three black dots somehow soothed Naruto. "I understand." The circling dots suddenly stopped and seemed to bleed into a different pattern.

"Mangekyou Sharingan." Harry whispered and everything went black for Naruto.

* * *

><p>Sometimes people ask themselves; why is this happening to me? They often blame a myriad of things, from the sun to the moon, from their parents and their upbringing to the president. Harry however had learned that everything that happens only takes place because you set it in motion.<p>

Standing in a dim lit sewer, murky water making his pants stick to his legs like a bee sticks to its honey; Harry could feel true malice ahead of him. He was in Naruto; to be more specific in a part of his subconscious. The part of Naruto where the seal had been placed to keep a demon at bay.

Despite his surroundings being imaginary the water moved while Harry walked forward. Naruto was nowhere to be seen; Harry had spared the blonde boy the sight of the demon that resided in his body, Naruto had been locked away in a dream that would be forgotten once he awoke. The combination of Harry's Mangekyou Sharingan and his Legilimency made him extremely aware of just where he was and of what he could do.

Ahead of him pure malice and hatred radiated from behind thick bars. Naruto was a Jinchuuriki, a vessel of a demon, the power of human sacrifice personified. The seal in Naruto was strong, filled with power; more robust than anything Harry had ever encountered. "This seal… the fourth truly made a masterpiece." Harry said softly. The beast behind steel bars was asleep. Hadn't been awoken in a good eleven years. Harry smiled when he noticed another chakra signature in the seal. "They really loved you, Naruto."

Suddenly with a gust of wind two red eyes snapped open. At first they seemed far away but with steps that made waves in the sewer that washed over Harry the Kyuubi, the nine tailed demon fox, the strongest demon of the entire nine-piece set rattled its cage. "Who dares waking me up!"

Meeting the giant eyes that exuded malevolence unlike anything Harry had ever seen with his Mangekyou Harry silenced the demon with just a spark of chakra. "I am sorry, Kyuubi. But your jailor has given me permission to take some of your chakra." The huge chakra entity struggled against the power of the Sharingan but all it managed to do was release a mighty roar that made no sound. "Your chakra, it's corrosive, dangerous; it is raw." Slowly red chakra seeped out from between the steel bars. "Though I can feel that it doesn't need to be this way. You could let go of your anger, your hate. You could be a force of good." The Kyuubi in a fit of rage roared again. "I guess now is not the most opportune time to try and persuade you to- "here harry let out a small laugh, "join the light side." The Kyuubi struggled with all his might but the Sharingan Harry wielded was so much stronger than the nine tails' will that it didn't manage to do anything other than whimper softly. "You're a chakra construct… and my Sharingan can easily control that which falls into its sight."

The red chakra bubbled around Harry, a formless dense foaming pool of energy flowed towards him and engulfed him almost completely. "Don't worry, I won't take more than I need." The Mangekyou Sharingan controlled the Kyuubi with ease, he collected about a quarter of the Kyuubi's chakra before he stopped. "It is time for you to sleep again, demon." With those words Harry forced the Kyuubi into slumber once more. Harry forced the chakra to pool in his hands, as it became denser it also became heavier.

Looking down at the chakra Harry caught sight of his face's reflection in the water and could see his Mangekyou Sharingan. "Cursed my eyes may be, but just as with the hallows; I will do only good." With those words Harry redirected the chakra into the scroll that was still on the table outside of this representation of Naruto's jail.

It took nearly twenty minutes before Naruto awoke by himself. Harry had told him that it had been successful. "You might feel a bit tired today. But the chakra I've taken from you will return if you eat well and rest enough."

* * *

><p>That night while team twelve prepared to take down the pluckings in the Land of Snow Kakashi finally reached the village. He had taken it slow, thoughts and memories clouded his mind. He had a decision to make. This mission had been the first solo mission he had been on since the death of Rin. And while he had succeeded it hadn't felt right.<p>

The night he had made the mayor kill himself he hadn't been able to cope. Memories of a life he didn't want anymore came rushing to him, flooded his mind and he had turned to alcohol to dim the pain. After the death of Obito he had distanced himself from the people around him, he kept himself busy with missions; he lived for them. He had become an Anbu because while wearing the mask he could pretend he wasn't himself; that no one he had known had died.

When Minato and Kushina had sacrificed themselves to safe the village he redoubled that effort, he had a house but it wasn't a home. He had wallowed in self-pity when he thought about all the time he could've spent with the both of them. All the time he didn't show them just how much he cared about his friends, his loved ones.

After Minato had died he couldn't look Rin in the eye; he was ashamed. He hadn't been in the village when it happened. It had been a month before he had even heard of the incident. Once again he had been away from the village as Inu; on a mission to kill some drug-lord and disbanden his organization. He had succeeded in that mission. He had missed the funeral, he had abandoned his friends and loved ones because there was no longer a Kakashi, there was only Inu. Inu could handle the pain of loss so much better than he could.

But he was there when Rin died; and he wasn't Inu when he saw her body. He wasn't just another masked shinobi when he carried her body all the way to Konoha. And somehow it had made him stronger, he had lost Rin but he was able to deal with it. It hurt, a lot, but he was able to deal with the pain of loss as Kakashi. He hadn't needed the mask, he hadn't used the mask of Inu ever since, until this mission…

After Rin's death he had started to train her students. At first he had done it to honor her, to honor his last teammate. But over time he came to think of them as his own students. He hadn't donned the Mask of Inu for a good two years until last mission. And now it wasn't that he couldn't deal with the pain of loss that came with being Hatake Kakashi. Now it was the emotionless shell that was Inu that slowly tore him up.

He was no longer Inu; he could no longer be Inu. He was Hatake Kakashi. With that mantra Kakashi went to the Hokage, his decision made. "Ah, Hatake. I presume the mission went well?" The Hokage asked while covering a crystal ball.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes. Yes the mission was a success." Out of one of his flack jacket' pockets Kakashi procured a scroll and gave it to the Hokage. "I've written it all out, including some interesting sightings..."

Hiruzen took the scroll with one hand and opened it giving it a glance over. "Hmm. Seems like everything went well." He said after putting the scroll on his desk. Normally this would have been the moment where Kakashi would either request a new mission or would nod and leave. The Hokage frowned when Kakashi did neither of those but took out his Anbu mask. "Ah, the Inu mask." The older man mused, a lot of stories accompanied that mask, a lot of memories.

"The Inu mask…" Kakashi repeated laying the mask on the Hokage's desk. "I can't wear it anymore."

The Hokage folded his hands and rested his head on them. "Is something the matter; Kakashi?" Sarutobi asked with a soft voice. "The mask looks to be in excellent condition."

"The mask, there is nothing wrong with it." The Jounin looked down at the mask. "I just can't wear it anymore."

Sarutobi inclined his head. "Elaborate on that."

"I've been me for too long to become him again. " Kakashi said clenching his fist. "It is time for someone else to become Inu, I don't need it anymore." The jounin's voice was solid; not a wavering was present while he declared that his time as an Anbu was over.

"It is not as simple as that, Kakashi." Kakashi nodded as the Hokage unfolded his hands to open a drawer. "You can't retire from Anbu. No one does." Hiruzen searched through the drawer with his hand until he found what he was looking for. "However, you could always be reassigned."

Kakashi frowned. "I don't want to be reassigned. I don't want another mask or name. I want to…" he took some time to phrase what he wanted to say. "I. I want to become another team's Jounin-sensei."

"Ah, I see." The Hokage murmured while yet another one of his plans seemed to come together. "Well if that is the case… We should talk."

* * *

><p>Her father was dead and the day started with the sun waking her up. Her thin white curtains helped the sun illuminate her entire bedroom. Last night had felt like a dream; but she knew that harsh reality would make her tremble once she searched for her father.<p>

Despite the euphonious feeling of hope exuding from deep within her there was a part of her that couldn't believe that everything would go back to normal now. Banishing all those negative doubting thoughts from her mind Rukia got out of bed and went through her normal morning routine.

On her way down the stairs she greeted her father's best friend that as always came at eleven o'clock sharp. "Good morning." Rukia mumbled sleepily, her towel dragging over the floor behind her.

"Good morning, Rukia." His too chipper voice replied.

Rukia stopped walking towards the bathroom. In a few minutes her father's best friend Kenji would find his dead body. Her heart got stuck in her throat. "Why are you so happy this morning?" she asked, masking her nervousness with her famous morning chagrin.

Kenji just smiled back at her "You'll find out soon enough; it is grand news, grand. But your father will be the first to know." And with those words she was left to look at his back while he went to her father's office.

She just stood there frozen in place waiting for the scream of terror that would soon be heard all throughout the house. After two minutes of not hearing anything she ran towards the showers. She threw the towel over the rack and steeled her racing heart while drops of water burned her back.

It wouldn't do to break down here and now; the title of Daimyo was hereditary. As soon as her father was found dead she would need to show a strong face, show the city that she could lead them as well, no, even better than her father had led them. She could break down later; when those sound ninja had gone.

When the door to the bathroom opened Rukia looked up, the steam between her and whoever was in the door opening made it difficult for her to see the persons face. But the soft crying voices that she heard accompanied by a single word made her heart jump with joy and fall with sadness. "Rukia?" she heard Kenji say. She knew he had found her father; he hadn't screamed, he hadn't yelled. He had just cried.

Rukia swallowed the bile that suddenly rose up in her throat. "Kenji!" she said scandalized. "What are you doing here?" She quickly turned off the water and pulled her towel of the rack to wrap and cover herself up in the soft piece of cloth.

Kenji, probably realizing the way this must have looked to Rukia quickly put his hands in front of his eyes. "I'm sorry." His cracked voice said. "You need to get dressed, there is something… something… just get dressed." He said his last words forcefully. Rukia nodded even though Kenji couldn't see her do so.

* * *

><p>The day went by so quickly after she had 'found' her father's dead body. The coroner declared him officially dead "Considering the advanced state of the rigor mortis and the softness of his eyes he has died at least 12 hours ago."<p>

None of them had any clue that her father had not killed himself, no one knew that he had died because she had hired a trained killer. None of them knew, and none of them could ever know or her plan to rid the town of its horrors would shatter into a million pieces.

Four hours after the coroner had let the police take away his remain it had officially been declared a suicide. The entire town knew of his death by then and many people came by her to offer their condolences. Her aunt had been by her side since lunch and made sure she ate enough. "Oh darling, it wouldn't do to let you starve yourself now would it." she had said while she stuffed Rukia's mouth with rice balls.

That night at seven thirty she had declared this week to be a week of grieving. She would take the mantle of her father after he would be buried and until then she would be cloaked in black; the color of those that grieve.

* * *

><p>Yuugi sat opposite of her grandmother. She had just told her what had transpired on her last mission. "Are we doing the right thing?" the chuunin asked with more than just a hint of uncertainty in her voice.<p>

Her grandmother poured the both of them a cup of tea that Yuugi gladly took into her hands, it felt nice; and warm. The old woman pointed with her wrinkled finger to the courtyard behind Yuugi. Under the giant tree that stood alone in the courtyard sat a young girl, short black hair with a blue hue on the parts that touched the sun. "The main branch heiress?" Yuugi asked softly.

"Just look at her…" a strong hand suddenly held her left shoulder. "This is the girl that will one day lead our clan, do you think she already knows how to go about that?" Yuugi shook her head. "We Hyuuga can see more than any man or women. But not even we can see the future; our decisions are like stones that are falling in a pond, they make ripples. And sometimes those ripples have no negative consequences whatsoever."

The hand on her shoulder let go of her as hot liquid burned her hand. "And sometimes, ripples can have dire consequences." Her grandmother said after dropping a sugar cube into her tea. Dropping in another one that didn't splash on to her hands her grandmother looked at Hyuuga Hinata and sighed. "Never be afraid to make decisions Yuugi, just follow your heart. Be content and make those decisions with a strong heart, that's all I can hope for you to be able to do."

Yuugi took a sip from her tea, steam entered her nostrils and for a moment she felt like sneezing. "So, as long as I stand behind my decisions… it's all good?" She asked.

The fact that Yuugi had come to that conclusion made the woman smile with warmth Yuugi hadn't seen a lot lately. "My dear Yuugi. Your parents would've been so proud of you."

* * *

><p>Yuugi hugged her grandmother, but that wasn't enough for the mother of her mother. The elder Hyuuga firmly grabbed Yuugi's face and gave her a kiss on her forehead. "Try your hardest, Yuugi." She said before tying her own forehead protector on her granddaughter's forehead. "For good luck."<p>

Yuugi had seen her grandmother's only once before, it was made of pristine white fabric with the Hyuuga clan symbol etched next to both sides of the Konoha leaf. It was the one she had worn herself back in the first and second ninja war. It was the forehead protector of just another shinobi, it held no special meaning to anyone else but her and her family, and to Yuugi it meant so much more than just good luck. It meant her grandmother had faith in her. "Thank you." Yuugi said tightening the forehead protector so that it wouldn't fall over her eyes.

"Now go, help those people." The Hyuuga elder pushed her out of the house. Yuugi nodded and walked away not hearing her caretaker utter two last words before she disappeared from sight. "Be safe."

* * *

><p>More than a year ago Koh had bred his own Kikai bugs, he had traded the agility of the black bugs for the strength of his large red bugs that were capable of not merely sucking his enemies' chakra but also rip their flesh. They were vastly superior to what he had started out with. And he had kept improving them slowly the bugs were getting even stronger, more agile and ferocious. His father had acknowledged the kind of skill that must have taken, he had been proud of him and what he had accomplished thus far.<p>

The fact that his father had not only felt proud of him but had also said so in front of other Aburame meant a lot to Koh. It meant that he had done well, that he was more than just another ninja to his father. His father normally wasn't a very talkative person, even less than Koh himself. And to say their relationship was friendly was more than Koh could ever hope for. No, Aburame Kyou was not the most pleasant man to have as your father but to Koh he was the best father he could imagine. His father taught him everything he knew, how to fight, how to converse, how to enjoy the dew in the morning and how to be proud of himself and his achievements.

But his father wasn't proud of what he was going to do now. "It is illogical and foolish to proceed with this madness that that Uchiha boy has birthed in you." His father said looking down on him. "You are Aburame, and that should mean more to you than your team."

"Father, I have made my decision." Koh tried to look his father into the eye but the ever present sunglasses prevented him from doing so. "Is it madness to want to help end the slavery of an entire town?"

"We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of the art of self-destruction. You are no exception, everybody's youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness. But you are Aburame, you and your hive should know better than to give into irrational feelings, than to deploy yourself for a mission that would surely end in your destruction." His father's hive buzzed in anger or worry, Koh wasn't sure. Normally his father's hive was silent.

And normally Koh would give in into his father's demands. "I am not just Aburame anymore. I am Aburame Koh, member of team twelve, friend of Hyuuga Yuugi and Uchiha Haru. I am my own person; and if my decision, my own madness as you call it causes my destruction than I died as an individual part of a hive bigger than just the Aburame." Koh said in a bout of rebellion he had never shown before. He grabbed his belongings and walked out of the door. Throwing back one glance to see his father's stony face and his decision was made. "It is a kind of madness that has helped build Konoha, father. It is the madness of altruism." And with those words he closed the door behind him.

* * *

><p>Team twelve gathered in front of the main northern gate. Hyuuga Yuugi had dressed herself in thick robes of pure white that were wrapped tightly around her waist. It was made of a stoat's winter fur, the kind of fur that was only reserved for the richest of the rich. Royal blue belts kept the robes in place. Her arms and hands were hidden in the long sleeves that seemed to flow like water in the wind. Her dark hair was in stark contrast with the white of both her face and the kimono like robes. On her forehead she proudly wore her grandmother's forehead protector. Strapped to her back she had a small pouch that seemed to bulge with items unknown. "Koh, Harry." The Hyuuga said greeting her teammates.<p>

"Hello, Yuugi." Koh greeted back. Koh was wearing his standard coat but underneath it he had wrapped his body in bandages to keep himself warm once they entered the land of snow. "You've got a new forehead protector." He stated.

Yuugi nodded, a small blush appearing on her cheeks. "Thank you for noticing, it belongs to my grandmother; she gave it to me for good luck."

"That's good, because we will need all the luck we can get." Harry said interrupting the small moment between Yuugi and Koh. "I shall pop us straight to the end of the forests, there we will set up a camp and shall start our own mission."

"Take my hand." Harry said holding out his gloved hand which had the Uchiha symbol imprinted on it. Both chuunin took his hand and they all vanished from the sight of onlookers with nothing but a cracking sound.

* * *

><p>Harry gasped when they appeared in the open clearing he had transported them to. 'Taking them both with me, this far… it hurts.' He pushed his hand against his chest. 'I shouldn't do this too often.'<p>

"Are you all right?" Yuugi asked with concern in her voice.

Taking a deep breath Harry answered "Yeah, yeah I'll be fine. It's nothing; just some backlash that I didn't quite anticipate." It took only a few seconds before the worst of the constricting pain in his chest faded, Harry walked towards the nearest tree and sat against its bark. "It took more out of me to body-pop us all the way here than expected, I'll have to take it easy for a little while."

Yuugi looked at Koh who in turn nodded. "Okay." She said "We will set up camp, you just try to recuperate." Both chuunin quickly set to work after that. Yuugi opened the pouch on her back to retrieve a tiny scroll, no bigger than pencil. Opening it and activating the seal that acted as a storage place for her ninja wire she booby-trapped nearly every square feet of the space around their make shift camp that would be built by Harry later.

Koh set to work on hiding the camp using his bugs he used the Aburame version of the old but trustworthy Henge. All around their camp the bugs had created boulders large enough to hide them from prying eyes. Going through a set of ten hand seals Koh made his bugs create a jamming field that would create a chakra disruptive dome around them; no sensor would be able to find them, even if he knew where they were.

After a few minutes Harry seemed to be back on his feet, using his doton abilities created an underground building consisting of two rooms; one place to sleep and one room that would serve as their control room. The frozen ground wasn't too happy about changing shape and form and was trying it's hardest to resist the chakra Harry poured into it. It took him a good hour to enrich the ground enough to actually make the make shift headquarters but in the end their hard work paid off. "I believe that for today; we've made our goals."

"This camp is indeed proper enough to house us for the duration of our stay." Koh said as he started eating a heated cup of ramen that Yuugi had made for them. "The question now is; how will we proceed?"

The three of them had already made the underground quite comfortable; Harry had stored half a living room in some of his scrolls and Yuugi had gone out of her way to provide enough food for a school full of hungry children. They were currently sitting on a soft sofa; with Harry sitting on the far left. "I believe our best option is to strike fast and multiple times when they don't expect it; we are outnumbered; greatly. Our best chance is to use guerilla tactics."

"Guerilla tactics… why would you try to use a fist when a gentle hand could achieve so much more?" Yuugi said in between of taking bites out of her roasted pork. "I've thought about it; we are outnumbered forty to one. However there is only one person that needs to be persuaded to leave this place alone for this to be solved." Here she looked at Koh. "All we need to do is get to the commanding shinobi and try to make him decide it would be wiser to leave this place than to stay."

Harry strongly shook his head. "No, if the history books have taught me one thing it is that those who want to profit from the weak won't be persuaded by a soft hand, they won't change their minds with words. We will have to take action. We must be absolute in our decision." Putting away his own cup of ramen Harry walked to his backpack and searched through it. A few seconds later he took out a scroll. "I've been working on a project, something that will probably solve a lot of our problems." Opening the scroll and activating the seal on it causing smoke to erupt he held an even bigger scroll in his hands.

"What is that?" Yuugi asked with furrowed brows.

"This… This is Armageddon." Harry said with a smirk while caressing the scroll with his fingers. "This is something I've worked on ever since I found out just how to get access to an endless source of the most foul and destructive chakra in the elemental nations."

Koh shuddered, instantly realizing what that meant. "You got access to a Bijuu… a tailed demon." Suddenly he stood up and backed away. "You shouldn't mess with that kind of power, Harry. Nothing good can come from it."

"Let him explain first before jumping to conclusions Koh." Yuugi said worried about how strongly Koh felt about this. "First, Harry… What do you mean with 'the most foul and destructive chakra'?"

Harry laid the scroll on the table. "Nearly twelve years ago the Kyuubi attacked the village of Konoha. The books tell us that Yondaime Hokage Namikaze Minato defeated the nine-tailed beast… But that couldn't be farther from the truth. In actuality the Yondaime sealed the demon into a child and created a jinchuuriki, he created a power of living sacrifice." Harry sat next to the scroll and unrolled it. The scroll was large, longer than Harry himself was. There must have been hundred or more seals written on it. Some were black some were red but all were way above what was taught at the ninja academy. "I've created what I like to call a Ten Anchored tomoe seal." Pointing at the ten tomoe that had been drawn in an oval around the rest of the seals Harry continued. "This little bit of ink, paper and blood holds the power of a hundred Jounin." Suddenly Harry's fingertips started to glow with blue chakra. "For each finger, one tomoe. Every tomoe holds back the power of almost a dozen shinobi… Now if I unlock these the normal way, one by one, all the chakra inside it would burn up after it is released. If I am right it could decimate the village twice over."

Yuugi gulped. "What happens if you don't unlock it the normal way?"

"That's where it gets tricky. Unlocking the seal normally is easily; unlocking it the right way would mean I have to open all tomoe at the same time. And all the chakra would not simply burn up; it will enter the nearest chakra receptive host. This would be me."

"That is suicide, Harry. You must realize that." Koh said. "No human being is supposed to handle that kind of power."

Here Harry folded his arms over each other. "I'm no fool, Koh. I know that all that chakra would kill me if I took it in directly. However if I use the Kage Bunshin at the same time all that chakra enters me I could make a hundred clones of myself that would have as much or even more chakra than I have without any negative side effects. It is my answer to fighting an army if things get out of hand."

"It sounds more dangerous than you are making it look. Harry, be honest with us. Are you sure this will work?" Yuugi asked. "Have you tested it?"

Harry looked away from her. "I haven't tested it with the Kyuubi's chakra. But I have made a similar seal once before." Harry said, not telling her that the seal he was talking about wasn't a seal of this world; it had been a runic circle he had created to seal magic in of a creature so foul it could've only been a demon. It had worked back then. And he had applied the same principles to this seal. "And it worked."

"Promise only to use this as a last resort Harry." Koh said. "No, vow on it with your honor as an Uchiha."

Harry blinked, Koh really wasn't kidding around. "We don't have to be scared of this; I can assure you-"

"No Harry, you can't assure me of this, chakra of the sort that the Kyuubi must possess is different. It isn't the kind of chakra you or I can produce. It is chakra that is made of the elements itself, it doesn't keep to the laws of nature as we know them. No, you must vow to me on your honor only to use this scroll if and when all other options have failed." Koh actually removed his sunglasses to look Harry into the eyes with his own. "Or we will return to Konoha right now."

"I understand your concern; really I do." Harry tried to think of a good enough argument to persuade the Aburame but nothing solid came to mind. "And as your friend I will give you that vow." Placing his hand over his heart he vowed on his honor as an Uchiha that he wouldn't use that scroll unless it was his last option.

Yuugi rolled the scroll back up and stored it in the smaller scroll. "This still leaves us without a good course of action."

* * *

><p>Rukia had already taken the position of Daimyo despite it still being only the second day in her week of grieving. There were simply too many things to take care of and just too little time to put them off. Of all the things she had to do she had prioritized the most important job, and so the first thing she did was make contact with the liaison between her and the shinobi that were roaming their mountains and streets. She had called for the woman in her office and just ten minutes later the shinobi clad in a green kimono knocked on her door. "Come in." she said.<p>

The blue haired woman walked in, her face was stone like, no muscles moved despite the fake smile that had to be hard to keep up. "Good afternoon Miss Guren." She said welcoming the shinobi.

"Good afternoon." The woman answered, her red lipstick making her lips stand out from her fair skin. "My condolences on the sudden and unfortunate death of your father." She said closing the door behind her yet not walking forward to sit down, her statement was crystal clear to Rukia. She was a shinobi and Rukia was just a civilian. Rukia decided not to let herself be looked upon like that.

"Please take a seat." Rukia offered, not even acknowledging that Guren had said anything about her father. "We have a lot to discus and standing like that can't be comfortable, so please. Sit."

Guren did just that, sliding one of the wooden chairs back a bit and slowly; almost catlike she took the seat in front of Rukia her whole posture screaming that she was better, that Rukia didn't have a thing on her. "I am sure that you are aware of the fact that with the changing of the head of this town from my father to me that things will change. I won't talk around it. It also means that whatever deal we had with your shinobi village has been annulled as of now." Here Rukia planted a stamp on a document and gave it to the lady in kimono.

Instantly the woman who had kept a smile on her face through the entire conversation thus far dropped the act and a dangerous glint in her eyes made itself apparent. "You don't want to do that."

Rukia didn't want to admit it, but the voice and tone of that woman send shivers down her spine. But she had to be strong; unlike her father who had given in into the bullying of these shinobi she had to keep a straight back and refuse them. "On the contrary, Miss Guren. This is something I want to do and that is long overdue." Rukia stood up and walked towards the window and looked outside while she folded her hands behind her back, showing that she wasn't scared; that she didn't fear for her live. "I've already made contact with the Raikage- if I will be denied by you he will remove you by force, all I need to do is ask and he will be here within a day to take care of this personally." Here she turned back around and procured a letter from within her robes. "So I expect your full cooperation. Understood, Miss Guren?"

Guren smiled at the newly appointed Daimyo. "You foolish little girl. You've just condemned this town to slavery. Do you think your father wanted us here? We had to kill his wife and threaten to kill you before he became compliant enough. We have too much invested in this project to simply pack up and go away now." Here Guren sighed. "We can play this nicely and forget this conversation happened, you will inform the Raikage that his help won't be required anymore and things will stay the way they are; or we can play this hardballs and you won't like the outcome."

Rukia swallowed even though her throat was dry. The revelation that had just been made shocked her. Her father... he hadn't betrayed her, he hadn't betrayed the village. He had protected them. He had chosen the life of a few for the lives of the many, but Rukia couldn't do that. She had already made contact with her neighboring country; Kumo would surely come to their aid when asked for it. When she first contemplated on taking her father out of the equation she couldn't ask them for help. They would never do that to an ally as rich and influential like her father. That was why she had contacted Konoha instead.

The word left her lips before she could realize what she said. "No." Rukia immediately felt a feeling of anger well up that resulted in her rebellious words. "I will neither bow down to you nor your threats. I am Daimyo and my will is law." Rukia with courage she didn't know she had folded her arms and looked Guren dead in the eye. "You have one day to meet my terms."

Sadly for Rukia her courage couldn't save her from the hand chop that connected with her neck an instant later. "Sorry girl. But I've got orders to keep this project running."

* * *

><p>"The first thing we need to make sure of is that they won't be able to escape once we strike." Harry said. It wasn't often that he talked about the murder of people so casually. If someone had told him that the day would come that a life of an enemy didn't mean much more than the life of a flubberworm he wouldn't have believed it. But here he was; hardened by the shinobi life, making plans to kill a good hundred people, because they thought they were in the right.<p>

Perhaps wizard Harry would've ended someone like shinobi Harry; someone who thought he was above the justice system, who thought that he could take a life just because that person stood in the way. Perhaps wizard Harry would've tried to use a softer hand to deal with this problem. A little confounding here and polyjuice potion there and this could've been solved with a lot less blood spill. But wizard Harry was no more. Perhaps in the far back of his mind but Harry had changed. With every day he became a little less Harry Potter and a little more Uchiha Haru.

If he had noticed this he would've been worried, but as always with time comes change and time seemed to pass so rapidly in this world. "If we use your Kikai bugs to pin point where their ninjas are while outside of the mist bank I can body-pop a few exploding shadow clones in and get out of there, I'm pretty sure not many could escape such a fast attack."

Koh nodded. "That could work, but it would mean a great loss on my hive; it are only the females that are easy to track and they aren't as frequently born as the simple males. I can speed up the birthing process but I would need a warm room and sufficient chakra." Here Koh looked at Harry. "You chakra, Harry, would be most ideal. My bugs favor it even above my own."

Harry shuddered but personal inconveniences had no time and place while they were on this self-assigned mission. "Of course." The Uchiha went with his hand through his hair. "Yuugi that will mean that we need you to carry out our first phase. Can you handle it?"

"Sure, I already have someone in mind." Yuugi said while she was focusing her Byakugan on someone in the town. Yuugi would take the place of one of the genin, using a Henge to take over his or her appearance and infiltrate the Oto headquarters in Kuwain. With a bit of luck she would be able to block their means of communication which would hopefully prolong the time it would take the shinobi army to notice their attacks. "You two just make sure that you're ready as soon as I am done."

Harry looked at Koh who had already sent out his bugs. "It shouldn't take my bugs more than an hour or seven to safely drain enough chakra from Harry." Making two hand signs his bugs started to crawl towards Harry who took off his shirt, he closed his eyes and focused on balancing his chakra trying to generate enough chakra to keep the process going for long enough. "Good luck, Yuugi." Koh said while Yuugi made her way out of the underground hideout.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes into walking towards Kuwain she could hear a lot of commotion; people screaming and crying. Activating her Byakugan Yuugi gasped. Just ten minutes ago the town looked peaceful, everybody was going their merrily way and nothing on towards was happening which was in stark contrast with what she observed now. People were trying to run away from shinobi. But they were not very successful, children, women and men alike were being chained and led into the mountains.<p>

Yuugi couldn't believe what she saw. Some of the civilians were trying to fight back but a quick kunai through the throat stopped the rebellion before it even begun. With her Byakugan she could see some little children being hid under the kitchen sinks or in broom closets. But the shinobi were relentless and unforgiving and within half an hour while Yuugi stood nailed to the ground by disbelief an entire town was either kidnapped or killed. The streets were empty, only some pets were left behind left only with the corpses of those foolish enough to stand their ground.

"Shit." Yuugi cursed. "Shit, shit shit!" there was nothing she could do but watch. An entire town, gone within mere minutes. She kicked a log that lied on the ground next to her shattering it to pieces. "This changes everything."

She ran back to their hideout, evading the numerous traps that she had planted. Barging in through the wooden door like it wasn't even there she saw her two teammates covered in bugs while chakra visibly traveled from Harry to Koh. "Guys stop what you're doing, because we have a problem. I don't think our original course of action will suffice."

While Harry remained sitting perfectly still Koh moved his head to look at her. "What has brought on this change?"

Yuugi took off her coat throwing it on the couch. "Kuwain has been kidnapped." She said her voice higher than she meant it to be.

Now Harry also moved, turning his head to look at Yuugi while bugs fell off his face when he quirked his eyebrow. "I'm sorry?"

"Please explain what that statement means, Yuugi." Koh added while his bugs slowly crept back to him. "Are you suggesting that an entire town has been kidnapped?"

"I'm not suggesting it. In half an hour dozen of ninja stormed Kuwain and practically dragged them into the mountains. They took everyone, every child, every elder, every woman and every man that they didn't kill." Yuugi seemed distressed, though both Koh and Harry could understand that after having seen what she saw. But with a shake of her head she steeled herself. "I can't forgive this. I won't forgive this." Again Yuugi kicked the thing closest to her, this time the couch she was standing next.

All bugs had returned to Koh, and so a bugless Harry walked towards Yuugi and hugged her. "I am sorry you had to see that." He said while Yuugi's façade quickly fell apart and tears streamed down her face. "But this changed nothing Yuugi. We will strike just as ruthlessly as they did. The mountains will be dyed in the red of their blood." He finished in a tone so cold both Koh and Yuugi shivered.

Releasing the hug and waiting for Yuugi to compose herself Harry turned to Koh. "Let's continue."

* * *

><p>Rukia awoke to the feeling of being punctured by a needle, her whole body ached. Her eyes felt heavy and dry, she blinked a few times trying to see clearly. There was a person hovering above her. Long blonde hair almost completely hiding her face. "Don't worry I'm almost done. You won't feel the pain much longer." Her voice -which was especially low for a woman- echoed.<p>

"Whaz ah you doin'?" she tried to ask; but her dizziness hindered her speech. She tried to push the woman that was hurting her away but failed spectacularly. The woman pushed the needle in just a bit further using a band aid to keep it there. She attached the needle to a tube. Rukia tried to resist but the woman was so much stronger…

"You're only making this harder on yourself girl." The woman said slapping her in the face. For a moment the dizziness was gone and she could think clearly. She was on a gigantic plant field. Around her hundreds of people she knew were working. All of them had needles and tubes sticking out of them. Some of them looked dead on their feet but were working tirelessly anyway. What was happening? But before she could answer her own question the dizziness return twice as bad and her head was all fuzzy. "Good, just lie still while I get you attached."

Suddenly a feeling of euphoria and pure energy shot though her like a blazing gun. That felt so good! The feeling stayed for a few seconds but faded away. In horror she looked at the blonde woman, where had that feeling come from, where did it go? "Listen girl, if you want to experience that again; you need to do just a few little tasks."

And so the Daimyo of Kuwain became just another victim of the very people she had tried to protect her civilians from.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong>_ Remember how in my previous arc I wrote about Shimekukuri? and gave the first and second hokage a backstory of my own. Kishimoto decided to simply wipe the floor with it by FINALY writing that flashback within a flashback. The manga is currently venturing into interesting places when it comes to the plot of shippuuden. I'm not sure how much it will change how I will write out this story though. It is pretty much set in stone when it comes to the ending._

_Well that aside, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Next chapter should be released somewhere this week probably around thursday. This chapter should've made it clear just what is happening in the Land of Snow; What do you think will happen next?_

_Anyways, leave behind a review whether it is long or short, just tell me what you thought of the chapter._

**ALSO THERE IS A NEW POLL, do you want non-stop action next two chapters or also some scene changing between whats happening with team twelve and whats happening with the storylines in Konoha? -Also PM me if the poll doesn't show up... I've been having some problems with putting/finding it on my profile.**


	32. Harvesting under the frozen moon part 4

**AN: We have reached a milestone! 200.000 words in and still going strong. We have actually surpassed the amount of words in Goblet of fire, I didn't know I had it in me.**

**I'm surprised no one noticed the last chapter, unlike the previous two, was called under the frozen moon instead of sun. I thought it quite clever of myself to make that change; it signifies it all getting progressively worse.**

**So, in this chapter shit will hit the fan and it will leave you with somewhat of a cliffhanger; sorry but it felt like the best place to stop. Please enjoy and review for I bring you:**

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><p><strong>Chapter 31: Harvesting under the frozen moon part 4<strong>

It had been three days since Yuugi had stormed in with the news that turned their mission upside down. Three days in which they had prepared a massacre of their own. The Kyuubi scroll was still only an option in the worst case scenario.

The three chuunin were currently standing right before the enormous mist bank, it was the one thing that had kept them from storming right in. But with the coming of a blizzard the enormous mist bank seemed to fail and falter every now and then. Soon, very soon, the jutsu would fall and they would be able to get in without being detected. "I give it one more hour." Yuugi said while her Byakugan observed their surroundings. "The storm will be here by then and we'll move in."

"This is also our last chance to turn away. The odds are against us. We don't know the extent to which they've protected these fields from intruders. We don't know the exact number of shinobi we will be facing and we don't know just how strong they are. There is a possibility that we will not see this to the end… If either of you are out of chakra or feel like it is getting too dangerous I want you to get out of here and go back to the hideout." Harry was crouching, one hand on his knee and another on the ground. "We will start going in and simply dispose of the guards, don't leave anyone breathing for one alarm is enough for us to be exposed."

Koh shivered in anticipation. "My bugs are itching to feast, they've been fed only chakra these last few weeks, and they hunger for blood. Today I will let them still that hunger."

Yuugi closed her eyes, deactivating her Byakugan. "My henge is ready." She stretched her fingers and put the henge over herself. For a second nothing happened but slowly Yuugi's face morphed into a face she had seen just days earlier, her white clothing darkened and soon she looked the part of an Oto-nin perfectly.

"Once they notice us, Yuugi, Koh. You will start on getting the civilians out safely. I will distract them; tonight I will make full use of my Uchiha bloodline." With those last words they waited until the mist disappeared while the snow storm painted the world white." Move out."

* * *

><p>Yuugi was not impressed, she quickly found the building from which the sound shinobi operated. She got inside without being checked. Once in she activated her Byakugan while her henge still made it look like she was just another shinobi. She walked the long hallways casually as if everything was as normal as they could be.<p>

There was a reason Harry and Koh had let Yuugi go inside on her own; unlike them she was capable of killing someone with just one touch. An instant, merciful death. Just a small pet on someone's back or neck, a little bit of chakra; enough to stop the flow of life to the brains but not enough to be noticed by anyone who wasn't actively looking for her. And so she met her first victims. Ahead of her two men were walking while having an upbeat conversation about a girl they had… pleasured. Yuugi caught up to them and with a swift move she placed both her hands on their necks and without a sound and just a tiny bit of chakra she used her gentle fist to bring down the both of them.

There was a reason the Hyuuga were called the strongest clan of Konoha, and it had all to do with the 'gentle' fist.

She caught them as they fell down and opened a scroll she had in her flack jacket. She stored the bodies nearly instantly inside the storage seals she had prepared and without giving any sign of what had just transpired she kept on walking, a small smile plastered on her face.

* * *

><p>Koh was sitting in one of the highest trees. He couldn't see much, but then again no one could under these circumstances. This was exactly the way Koh preferred it. His kikai bugs didn't like the cold very much but just a tiny bit of chakra was needed to coat them against the unrelenting force of nature that was winter.<p>

Having found the perfect place to control all his bugs he first started to make another chakra vacuum jamming field, just as he had done to the underground hideout they had made earlier that week. After all, it wouldn't do to be caught while the bulk of his bugs were not around.

Koh commanded his bugs to attach themselves to any and all shinobi that were foolish enough to walk around on their own. While draining Harry of his chakra for a good two days Koh had increased his hive from a mere three thousand males and ninety females to a new record for him. In total there were four hundred females buzzing about while a good fifty thousand males made themselves useful. The advantage of the kikai bugs were the speed in which they learned, all they needed was one full second in the hive and they knew what their place was. Currently twenty eight shinobi were not being watched by any of their colleagues. And so twenty eight females started spreading pheromones attracting fifty thousand males.

It was over within seconds, the raging storm masking any sound that past the lips of those unfortunate enough to have not died instantly. A mere ten seconds was all it took for Koh to receive signals that the assassinations were successful, he commanded his bugs to carry the left over remains to a cave one of his females had found earlier.

Now came the hard part; waiting for the new patrol team.

* * *

><p>Harry had tasked himself with undoing any and all genjutsu he could find. He discovered that the mountains were loaded with them, nearly every bush, stone and tree was just an illusion. All of it designed to cover up the fact that in these mountains people were being used as slaves. Drugged until they wanted to work just to get another dose.<p>

It disgusted Harry.

After undoing all genjutsu he could find he noticed someone was erecting the genjutsu once more. Just in front of him, a mere three meter ahead, a red haired girl went through hand seals at a speed he suspected to be of a chuunin bordering Jounin. The girl seemed to curse every few seconds or so. She would have to be the first to go. While both he and Yuugi were quite adapt at negating genjutsu, Koh had more trouble with them, it was one of his weaknesses.

Harry searched through his pockets, after a few moments he found what he was looking for. One kunai attached to a steel wire. 'As the queen of hearts would say, off with her head.' He thought before he threw the kunai towards her. The kunai reacted to the small amount of chakra Harry put through it and just as it passed her neck it made a u turn, circling around her neck. The steel wire attached to it cut of the girl's neck, but instead of it falling to the ground it just crumbled. "Shit... a clone, she's on to me."

Harry utilized all his senses and found the girl running towards the main building. "That will not do, if she can alarm them… It would put all of us in danger." Harry body popped to her location and grabbed her head. He tried to snap her neck but she wouldn't give in. Suddenly she took control of the situation, grabbed him instead and threw him to the ground.

She put her flute to her mouth and released a high pitched sound that must have been amplified with chakra, it nearly shattered his eardrums. "Fuck this shit!" she cursed trying to kick Harry who grabbed her leg and body popped high into the air.

"I am sorry, but you will die here." He said before letting go of her and safely body popping to the ground. Harry didn't wait around for the girl to smash into the ground and quickly went to work. With the enemy being warned of their arrival it wouldn't be long before they would notice the three of them.

Behind him he could hear the girl playing the flute while falling. Looking back to see why she would do that he could see three giant trolls of some kind that caught her midair. "Damn... this girl is something else."

"Fuck you little fucker!" She yelled out at him, she soon started to play her flute again with which she obviously controlled the three trolls. But Harry knew just what to do with those.

Using his Mokuton abilities he created two spikes that shot out of the palm of his hands, the first impaled one troll's head and the other one gutted a second troll. The first troll fell to the ground before puffing away in an explosion of smoke, the second troll however didn't even notice that he was impaled and simply started to move. Fast.

The two remaining trolls both had weapons in their hands but they seemed to be content to simply run around while some sort of ghost like worm crawled out of their mouth. "Those ghost look like trouble, I'm guessing they rip out either your chakra or your soul. Neither would be to my benefit."

Harry body popped once again and this time appeared in front of the red haired girl to run another wooden spike through her skull. However just as he was ready to make contact with her skin a golden arrow shattered his improvised weapon.

* * *

><p>Yuugi stored another body in her scroll, so far she had been successful in her assassinations, when a sudden high pitched sound warned her that something was off. Moments later red lights started to flash and the shinobi all around her started to move; her Byakugan noticed that most of them were moving towards the exit and so she followed.<p>

She ran and gathered with about fifty other ninja in front of a grey haired boy with two red dots tattooed on his forehead and thick horizontal red lines under his eyes. "There are intruders spotted in the west, Lady Tayuya and Lord Kidomaru are already engaged in battle. It is unlikely that this is a solitary mission, your task will be to guard the fields and report any and all suspicious activity to your squad leader. Dispatch." He said motioning for all of them to get out of the room. Yuugi still in the middle of the group of enemy shinobi decided to stick with a boy with dark hair and follow him.

Slowly the group started to break up, some ninja went left, the others right and some just disappeared altogether. However the boy she followed was in a group of three. As they stopped, so did she. "Why are you with us, you should go to your own squad." A man said.

Yuugi feigned ignorance. "But I was assigned to this division by Lord Tayuya herself." She improvised getting closer to the three shinobi, just a few steps more and they would be within her reach and she would be able to get rid of three more shinobi, bringing her grand total to twenty seven.

"Stay where you are." The man commanded with a threatening tone. The other two ninja caught on to what the man probably had already realized and fell back into a defensive position. Taking out a kunai and holding it in front of him as if it was a dagger the man effectively blocked her from taking out the three of them without any hinder. "State your name and original squad leader."

Yuugi knew she was caught as soon as the man started asking questions. It was something she had prepared for; still the odds were not in her favor, three shinobi with unknown skills stood in front of her and were on guard. It was obvious the dark haired boy she had followed was the weakest out of the three and the one that would most likely fall to her gentle fist first. But the man and the other ninja weren't rookies. Scars on their hands and sharp eyes indicated a life filled with battle and a mind adjusted to fight. "I am from team twelve." She dashed forward as if she was going to attack the man in the middle head on. Instead she used her open palm to thrust chakra at the man who was pushed back and in one fluid motion put her hand on the surprised boy's neck and killed him. "And my name is Yuugi." The boy fell down.

The man retrieved an explosive note from a pouch on his leg and attached it to a kunai. 'If that explosive notes goes off they'll know where I am, I need to prevent that.' Yuugi ran forward to stop the man but was stopped when the other ninja attacked her with a giant cleave sword. "Kenjutsu… how primitive." She said while holding the blade in her left hand and pulling it making the ninja stumble forward towards her. Chakra collected in her right hand and she struck the man's heart. It wasn't a clean death, the man would feel agonizing pain but her objective was no longer a fast and clean kill but getting rid of anything that stood in her way.

However, the few seconds it had taken her to kill the other ninja the man with the explosive note accomplished his own objective. He threw the kunai into a tree and with one seal ruined her chances of staying unnoticed. She ran towards him, still holding the giant cleave sword in her left hand and used it as a shield while the man, obviously a weapon expert, threw kunai, shuriken and giant windmill shuriken at her. Yuugi managed to dodge all of them, her Byakugan giving her perfect sight.

Just as she reached where the man was dozen of shinobi showed up. She had been found… now all she could do was stand her ground for as long as possible while working on a way to get out of there and become unnoticed once more. She let go of the sword, letting it fall to the ground. While the others may have had numbers to their advantage they would never be able to see her once she got rid of the Henge, her dark outfit attracted their eyes to her like bees were attracted to honey. The man looked her right into the eyes while her Henge fell, he could see the Byakugan and tried to get away, but alas, it was already too late for him. One hand connected with his chest and with pinpoint precision Yuugi killed number twenty seven.

* * *

><p>Koh still sat in the tree he had positioned himself on earlier. Apparently either Yuugi or Harry had been caught, or perhaps the both of them had been discovered. It didn't matter much though, the plan was clear. They would keep on fighting while he worked on getting the Kuwainian people out of there. His bugs had already taken the appearance of himself. Making a hundred mushi bunshin that could escort the civilians out of the mountains.<p>

But they were in bad shape and some outright resisted his help. The slaves were attached to tubes that fed them some sort of drugs, and even though he already had a hard enough time to get the people out of there unnoticed, they weren't helping him at all. It was as if they wanted to stay, as if all they needed and wanted came through those tubes, luckily the civilians didn't have much strength left in their arms and legs and his bunshin could easily just drag them out of the working fields.

Some of his bunshin were discovered and attacked by shinobi, of course that only worked in his advantage, as soon as a mushi bunshin was destroyed the seven hundred bugs inside it would instantly turn on the assailant, devouring his chakra and blood and reform into a clone once again. As long as Koh could stay aware of his bugs he could control them and they wouldn't be taken out easily.

* * *

><p>Originally Harry had been fighting a girl with red hair that had been called Tayuya by a six armed boy that she in turn had called Kidomaru, the girl tried to use her genjutsu but Harry was too sufficiently skilled in that area for it to work on him. However each time he tried to attack her instead the spider boy, Kidomaru intervened. To makes matters even worse a third opponent made itself aware, a giant of a guy with orange hair that threw boulders as if they were pebbles at him.<p>

All in all Harry had found a challenge, three skilled shinobi that were obviously used to working together. Harry had so far tried to minimize the amount of chakra he was going to use in this fight. These were only three ninja and while they were skilled, he couldn't be sure if they were the strongest there or if there were even stronger shinobi present. The two trolls that were still present didn't sit still either, though he had prepared the battle field by now.

Harry had simply reacted to whatever they threw at him, simply dodged whatever attacks they made. However he didn't do so because he was thinking up a counter strategy or because he couldn't keep up with them. No he did this because if he reached his final spot he would've made an explosive note circle. All he needed to do then was getting his opponents' inside it while getting out of there himself.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu." He said placing his last explosive note on the roots of a large tree. Five kage bunshin appeared out of nowhere and just like Harry did body-popped away. However unlike Harry, who body popped away from there, the clones body popped behind the trolls and three skilled ninja and grabbing them body popped them back, in the middle of the explosive circle. "Bunshin Daibakuha." Harry said, and the clones exploded making the explosive notes explode as well.

Giant flames erupted with a thunderous explosion. "They were good…" Harry said calming himself down. It wouldn't do him any good if he kept the adrenaline high all the time. The fire soon burned itself up and all that remained was a dome of earth scorched black by the flames. "What is that?"

As the dome split open to reveal the three ninja with black marks on their body Harry got his answer. 'That fat guy must've created that dome… that takes skill, to move this ground so fast.' The three of them didn't look like they enjoyed being in the midst of an explosion. 'Well at least I got rid of those two trolls. That's one thing I don't have to be worried about anymore. But what are those marks?'

"You little fucker!" Tayuya screamed. "You killed three of my Doki! I will make you pay, you little shitfuck." She put her flute to her mouth and started to play again. This time the genjutsu she cast wasn't as easily broken, but it still didn't cause any problems for him. No the one that caused problems was the spider guy whom had summoned a huge spider.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu." He said before it appeared. Kidomaru jumped away and hid himself in the trees while the giant spider immediately started to work on creating a web, Harry however had no intention of letting the enormous spider do anything of the sort. Collecting chakra to fire off a barrage of fire balls Harry placed his hand in front of his mouth to make the telltale move of spewing fire, he was however stopped from performing the move when the orange haired fat guy stormed towards him with an obelisk like stone in his hands that must have weighted a ton.

Harry let the spider be for what it was and focused on the more immediate danger that was Jirobo. "I'm giving you three-" Harry started while his Sharingan started to spin "one chance to get away from me relatively unharmed." Sometimes it was best to overestimate your enemies instead of underestimating them, the three shinobi didn't respond to his generosity and they would pay for it. As the Sharingan started to spin one of the jutsu's Harry had copied of Hatake Kakashi came back to him.

Jirobo was merely one meter away from Harry and would soon impale him with the stone when Harry's right hand started to spark with electricity and a beam of lightning connected with a clone he had summoned behind Jirobo. "Thunder transmission." Harry mumbled while the electricity cleaved first through Jirobo's right leg then his left arm and in a clean straight line halved the giant of a boy. The stone obelisk Jirobo held with his hand promptly fell on himself and so Jirobo fell to the ground.

Harry let Jirobo be where he was, he wouldn't be a problem anymore. Focusing again on the spider who had now finished making his web Harry made his clone run towards it when another golden arrow, the same like before, pierced the clone straight through its heart making it disappear in a puff of smoke. Harry was startled by the sudden death of his clone, he hadn't seen that arrow even come close to it. Whoever was shooting them, Harry suspected Kidomaru, knew how to shoot with great use of blind spots.

* * *

><p>On Yuugi's right a fireball was homing in on her while behind her a ninja had thrown a pair of windmill shuriken, and there was nothing she could do to evade them because from her left someone was targeting her with kunai attached with exploding tags. There was only one thing to do. She stood still for one second, letting the projectiles get closer and then when it was almost too late she made her move. Her left arm went up, her right arm went down and she started to spin. "Kaiten." She said as chakra came pouring out of her, the fire dissipated against the rotating shield of chakra while the kunai and windmill shuriken were reflected back to whomever was foolish enough to throw them at her in the first place.<p>

This was Yuugi's chance, she knew it. Using the confusion of her attackers she used a Kawarami and swapped herself with one of the opposing shinobi while placing that shinobi under a Henge and also using a Henge to transform herself into him. It was a tactic she had never used before but as she soon found out, worked perfectly.

The shinobi whom she had traded places with looked around himself in shock, he was yelling something but was cut off as someone got close enough to stab him through his heart with a sword. As blood came out of his mouth Yuugi noticed the others relax. Another great opportunity. Giving the two shinobi she was standing next to a compliment on a job well done she petted them on their backs, they fell down while she quickly made two clones to take their position.

So far so good. Though her chakra had been dented quite severely she had just offed number forty one. And that left just three more, the killer with his sword, a woman with incredibly long hair and a boy that was throwing up, unable to deal with what he had witnessed.

The clones were simple bunshin, they wouldn't be able to take any hits, nor would they be capable of speaking. However they were perfect for what she needed them to do, she needed them to give a false sense of safety. She and her clones walked towards the one that had unknowingly killed his comrade. Snow was still falling down and once again it helped her greatly. The man was unable to see she had henged the boy in his arms and herself. The girl with the long hair went to the puking boy while Yuugi took her time to kill the sword user. She patted him on his back. "Well done." She said as he fell as well.

Creating another clone, and using Henge to make him look like the sword user they walked towards the only two left. "Are you two alright?" She asked in a masculine voice. "That bitch took out a lot of us, but in the end she wasn't a match for big guy here." She pointed towards her clone that had the sword, the clone smirked before sitting next to the puking boy.

"We're alright." The long haired girl said in a small voice. "We should inform Lord Otokage of what happened here, he should be told about Konoha being here." She turned around to walk away leaving her back wide open for Yuugi to attack; which she did. Once more she put her hand against the back of a neck and with a minimal amount of chakra killed a shinobi. And though it saddened her, even just a little bit, she killed the boy at the same time.

"And that makes forty four." She said panting while the Henge fell. "I need some time to recuperate."

However, Yuugi was not given the time, for a boy started clapping his hands. "Well done Kunoichi-san." He said with two voices at once. "But this is as far as I'll allow you to go."

* * *

><p>It had taken Koh longer than expected but he had cleared the first of four fields. All the civilians were detached from their drug supplying tubes and unchained. He had knocked them all unconscious, or better said, his clones had knocked them all unconscious. These people were addicted to whatever they had been fed for the last few days or longer.<p>

With the saving of the first five hundred something civilians Koh realized just how impossible the odds were. And just how unlikely it was that they were actually succeeding in their efforts. They of course had been blessed with a good strategy and the surprise of the first hit but still…

Koh however didn't dwell on this, he moved his mushi bunshin to the second field and started the process anew.

* * *

><p>Harry had successfully gotten rid of the enormous spider after taking down Jirobo despite failing on his first attempt. The spider was evidentially not very well protected on his belly. He had struck the six legged summon with a wooden spike and it vanished as quickly as it came. "That fucking spider didn't succeed in doing anything useful now did it? You fucktard." Tayuya cursed out. "And this fucking useless flute isn't helping either against that shitstain of an Uchiha." She put away her flute and entered a taijutsu stance. "To think you would be capable of killing that idiot Jirobo, forcing me to use this ugly form…" Here Tayuya marks started to glow red and spread out even more. Her skin darkened and her hair got spikier while horns formed on her head.<p>

Harry looked at the girl with fascination, he wasn't sure what she was doing; it didn't look or even feel like a genjutsu which meant that whatever was happening, it was happening to her actual body. Harry wasn't given much time to contemplate the meaning of this change in appearance as Tayuya sped forward her fist raised ready to punch the living daylights out of Harry. "Take this you fucktard." Despite her agility and strength, which was evident from the air moving with her, she missed her punch.

"Sorry Tayuya, but that will not be enough to deal with me. Look into my eyes." Tayuya in spite of herself did just that and so Harry read her mind, at least he got an impression of her mind and could see what was closest to her conscious. To say the discovery was interesting would be to say Dudley Dursley was a big boy, an understatement of epic proportions.

"That is Orochimaru's cursed seal… You work for Orochimaru…" Harry said his insides turned upside down at finding that out. "You work for that monster… no wonder, it makes sense now I guess. Who else could be so wicked, so twisted, so sick to arrange for all this?" Harry kicked Tayuya in her side distancing himself from her. "I guess the gloves must come off then." For a second Rin-sensei's dead body in gruesome detail flashed in front of his eyes. Harry was filled with a rage that he hadn't expected to experience again. It felt like these people, these Oto-nin were just as responsible for her death as Orochimaru was. He roared a guttural scream as his Sharingan stopped spinning the way it had done the entire battle, the black of his tomoe bled into the shape of his Mangekyou. A black pupil encased by a triangle speared through by thin black lines birthed his Mangekyou Sharingan once more.

The second field was a lot less well guarded and thus so much easier to clean up, apparently Yuugi had taken out most of the guards that were supposed to protect it. His bugs informed him that his teammate was currently battling two persons with the same chakra. Koh frowned at this, it wasn't impossible but it wasn't likely either.

Deploying two bunshin to help Yuugi, Koh continued to work on getting the civilians away from these fields. The snow storm was getting worse and if it weren't for the fact that both his teammates had doujutsu which granted them advanced sight he would've worried for them more. But currently having a Byakugan or Sharingan was an advantage that shouldn't be underestimated.

Koh could also sense that his other teammate, Uchiha Harry, was building up his chakra to levels he rarely showcased. "So they've pushed you that far already? It shouldn't come as a surprise, you are fighting some of the most powerful shinobi in this place."

* * *

><p>The Mangekyou Sharingan, Harry had forgone with holding back and released one of his ultimate weapons. In itself the Mangekyou wasn't anything special, however the Mangekyou gave Harry access to jutsu he otherwise wouldn't be able to cast. Facing Tayuya and Kidomaru with his normal Sharingan put them almost on even fields, but with his Mangekyou he would rise above them.<p>

Harry concentrated the chakra inside him and pushed it out, making it take shape and creating a skeletal construct. "Susanoo." Harry said, his voice cracking. The ultimate technique of the Mangekyou didn't come without a price, it tasked the user's body by consuming a huge amount of chakra when it formed. The amount it took to sustain it however was negligible. Harry's Susanoo wasn't perfect yet but it was lethal nonetheless.

The giant chakra construct surrounded Harry in a sickly green aura, its head reached far above the tree tops while the four arms already targeted both Tayuya and Kidomaru. "What the fuck is that!" Tayuya yelled trying to get away from Harry's Susanoo. Harry didn't respond and just focused on catching the two shinobi.

Kidomaru was sitting the farthest away, he had just created a new arrow from his mouth with some sort of golden liquid. Using the thread between his hands he shot the arrow straight towards Harry. "One hundred and fifty percent destructive power." He said triumphantly. However Harry's Susanoo grabbed the arrow in its flight and crushed it.

"Your arrows will not reach me." Harry stated while making a hand sign. Susanoo reacted accordingly and sprouted a thin rod from its palm which it held lazily in his six fingered hand. "Susanoo is the personification of the deity that guards each and every Uchiha, it takes the form of what represents the user best. I gave you the chance to run away unhindered. You denied yourself that chance and now you will pay for it with your lives."

Susanoo pointed the thin rod that he held with his six fingers at Tayuya and a beam of chakra erupted from its end. "My Susanoo represents death, in all its aspects." The beam of light connected with Tayuya who had tried to get away but failed. As soon as the light engulfed her she just dropped dead. "It is both ruthless and forgiving. Quick and merciful."

Kidomaru knew that he was next and ran away as fast as he could but not even he was tricky or fast enough to evade the green chakra imbued light that engulfed him only a second later. Harry turned around, leaving the three shinobi he had robbed of their lives lying on the ground. On the battlefield there was no time for mourning, not for companions and certainly not for the enemy.

Harry made his way back to the main base, he had promised to distract whoever remained, giving Yuugi and Koh the time to do what they needed to do in order to get all the civilians out of these mountains. Harry kept Susanoo up, activating it again wouldn't be possible, not after all the chakra he had already spent on forming it once. In front of him, nearly fifty meters away, the main building in which Orochimaru's shinobi had housed themselves the last week stood. Harry wasn't sure if Yuugi was still inside or not, but he wouldn't risk destroying the building just in case she was.

Harry noticed a group of shinobi trying to surround him, but they didn't know that against Susanoo bigger numbers meant nothing more than bigger heaps of flesh that would rot once he was done. Harry waited for the shinobi to strike, which they did. At first they threw petty pieces of metal that Harry didn't even have to worry about. Susanoo wasn't something that would be brought down by the likes of those weapons.

Harry reacted as if it could though, three of the four hands and arms struck out, stopping the weapons in their track and grabbing shinobi. One of the stronger ninja he caught tried to get away before he was pulverized by the unrelenting force that was put on their chests. But just a tiny squeeze stopped even him. Harry expected to feel bothered when three sets of eyes popped out of their sockets, but to his surprise it didn't look nearly as graphic as he had expected.

'If all the ninja that were left were as weak as these shinobi' Harry thought, 'than we shouldn't have worried so much.' However it wouldn't stay this easy for Harry, because out of nowhere huge pink crystals started to form around his Susanoo's arms.

For a short moment Harry panicked, 'what is going on?' however by simply intensifying the amount of chakra the circled through his Susanoo the chakra construct was capable of crushing the crystals with its hands.

"That is quite something you got there. Uchiha Haru. The chakra of your jutsu can't be crystalized, but the air around it can." A blue haired woman said walking out of a snowflake looking mirror. "Let us test the strength of our bloodlines and see who will stand tall in the end."

Despite her thin frame and delicate looking body Harry knew this woman was more than just another shinobi. "You seem to have me at a disadvantage here, you know my name… But I don't know yours."

The woman started going through hand seals at a fast pace. "The name is Guren, Orochimaru's left hand and the one that has been ordered to keep you from advancing further. "She made a small bow. "And this is my bloodline limit. Crystal release." She stopped weaving hand seals and uttered just three words "Growing Crystal thorns." Within moments pink crystals formed around him like thorny roses.

* * *

><p>Yuugi was fighting someone, or better said two someones. Her opponent was able to merge his body with his twin brother and could emerge his twin's limbs anywhere he wanted at any time. Which made it increasingly difficult to attack because each time she was about to strike another arm or legged blocked her. But that wasn't the thing that was tiring her out. She got in a few good kicks and hits but somehow their chakra coils just wouldn't stay closed.<p>

"I've had it with you two." She said angrily. "You're in my range. Eight trigrams: One-hundred and twenty eight palms!" This would have to be her end technique. She didn't have much more chakra left. The twin boys' eyes widened as with an unnatural speed she attacked the boys in a blur. "Two strikes."

"Argh." One of the faces said while Yuugi's fingers hit him in his side.

"Four strikes." Yuugi's speed, which had already been fast, doubled as she got in four strikes. "Eight strikes. Sixteen strikes." Yuugi kept increasing her speed and she noticed that the chakra coils didn't reopen, no they were replaced, hitting a coil she had already hit before she noticed that it didn't reopen… 'Of course, they have two bodies, they must be able to switch between whose chakra coils they use. That means all I have to do is increase the amount of strikes to two hundred fifty-six. "Thirty two strikes." The pained looks on both their faces confirmed her theory. "Sixty four strikes." Her chakra was depleting quickly, but if it meant that she could finish these two freaks… than it was worth it. "one hundred and twenty eight strikes!" normally she would stop the barrage of hits after finishing this round but as she got her last hit in she noticed that a good two hundred chakra coils were open… "Two hundred fifty six strikes." Her muscles were strained and her own chakra coils were aflame. But just a few more seconds and her enemy would be down.

As Yuugi hit the twins last chakra coil causing them split she fell to her knees. In between the two boys who just laid on the ground. "I can't move! Ukon, help me, I can't move!" he screamed in panic.

"Use the cursed seal Ya-" but his last words were cut off when Yuugi shoved a kunai through his throat.

"Ukon, no! Ukon!" the last twin yelled. Yuugi once more took hold of the kunai and slashed it across the boys' neck, slicing it open. While life bled out of the second twin Yuugi fainted.

Luckily for Yuugi when her head almost touched the ground Koh's Mushi bunshin caught her. They had arrived too late to actually assist her in battle but now they were able to carry her body away from the battleground.

* * *

><p>Koh's bugs were still working on getting the civilians away from the fields, and while he had almost cleared the third field he was notified that a mushi bunshin was bringing him the unconscious body of Hyuuga Yuugi who had nearly gambled her life away. That meant that the only one of them that was still actively seeking out enemy shinobi was Uchiha Harry.<p>

Going over his hives' numbers he noted that he had barely lost five thousand of them, which normally would have crippled him substantially but with his increased numbers it was a loss he could compensate for.

By the time his clone had brought Yuugi to their hideout the third field had been cleared and he could work on the fourth and last field. Koh knew that his role was not to engage in battle himself; he was needed to keep oversight, retrieve either Yuugi or Harry if they were too wounded or exhausted to do so themselves. But the job left him with time on his hands, time that made him worry about the fate of his friends. Well friend. Yuugi was as safe as could be in their hideout. Yet Harry was another case, he was fighting someone, someone insanely capable of keeping up with him.

Despite his sight being impaired by the passing blizzard he could see huge pink crystals forming where Harry was. But so far Harry was alright, his teammate destroyed some of the crystals only moments after they formed with his green chakra construct. Koh had only seen Harry use his Susanoo once before, back then he hadn't been able to use it that well and their adversary, Orochimaru, had escaped without any wounds. But something told Koh that this time was different.

* * *

><p>The Kunoichi he was fighting was hard to catch, he had to give her that. But the crystals she was using to attack him with didn't even dent his Susanoo. Though even Harry would have to admit that she was very efficient in using them to block his attacks.<p>

Apparently the one that had attacked him first had been a clone which was surprisingly sturdy as it took quite some hits before it shattered. And she was fast, unbelievably fast. He had used his full speed with his Susanoo, and yet Guren was capable of just dodging him.

"You are strong. But you must have noticed the difference in our powers. While you've been trying to get in a hit on me, I've already taken out your allies." Harry said, hoping that if he could get her to talk he could rile her up and get her to make a mistake. "Your crystals don't hold on my Susanoo and I can see your chakra deplete with each and every jutsu you perform. How much longer will you be able to keep this up?"

Guren huffed. "In the end you're just a chuunin after all. Don't you see that I'm just stalling? That while I am keeping you busy my allies are able to get back up?" Guren flashed through another set of hand seals and created a wall of crystals to block one of his chakra beams he had fired with the thin rod. The beam deflected on it and shot high into the sky.

"In the end it doesn't matter how many people you are able to launch at me, Susanoo will prevail." He said, masking how tired he was becoming himself. " besides, you won't last much longer, for Susanoo will soon enter his next stage and become twice as strong." With those words the bones of his Susanoo started get wrapped in muscles. "The longer I use this jutsu, the better I understand it and the closer it gets too its final form." The deep green chakra seemed to intensify as the transformation ended.

Guren narrowed her eyes and threw kunai with exploding tags on them at him. However he already knew how to deal with those. With one swoop of Susanoo's arm he managed to deflect them back at her. Deciding it was time to finish this battle he stopped relying solely on his Mangekyou Sharingan and started attacking Guren with Genjutsu as well.

It didn't slow her down much but it gave Harry the chance to let his Susanoo grab her. Succeeding in his effort, a panic struck Guren was brought closely to him. "You were strong, I respect you for that. But working for a man like Orochimaru. That is unforgivable." He mentally gave Susanoo the command to crush her chest and end her. But Guren face relaxed as a smug look got over.

"But it's all too late for you now. Because he has arriv-"her sentence was cut short as her ribs cracked and pierced her lungs and stopped her heart from beating.

* * *

><p>Koh had finally cleared out the last field and that meant that phase two was going to start. With all the civilians carefully knocked out and put in a safe place it was time for Koh to actively help Harry. He collected his bugs and dropped his jamming field and jumped to the ground. "I can sense your presence, don't bother hiding." He said.<p>

From behind a tree a grey haired young man showed up. "You've done well in remaining under our radar, but now that you revealed yourself, your attack on us will stop." The man raised both his hands and stretched his fingers. "Finger drilling bullets." Quicker than even a kunai ten white, things… came out of the boy's fingertips.

The projectiles didn't get far though as a thick cloud of bugs intercepted them. The grey haired boy narrowed his eyes when all that was left of his projectiles were crumbles that fell to the ground. The boy inclined his head in acquiescence "You use your bugs to draw the calcium from my bones, that is problematic."

"My name is Aburame Koh, what is yours?" Koh asked of the weird looking boy.

The boy cracked his knuckles, slowly. "My name?" slowly bones started to pierce through his clothing. "My name is Kaguya Kimimaro… You use your bugs to fight long distance; that is your comfort zone. It is why you've kept yourself hidden from sight. You are a formidable tactician that is capable of fighting at several places at once using clones."

Koh folded his arms over each other. "Kaguya… To think I would be facing someone of your clan. It is, inconvenient for you to say the least. You have a sharp mind. How do I know? Your skill in deduction shows me that much. You must realize just how futile your bloodline is opposed to my style of combat."

Kimimaro's bones stopped growing out of him leaving him with spikes all over his body. "You are wrong on one thing. It is not I who is at a disadvantage." Kimimaro fired another round of his finger bones at Koh. The results being the same, the cloud of bugs formed once more and stopped the projectiles from reaching Koh. However when the bugs spread out again Kimimaro had disappeared from sight.

Kimimaro appeared behind Koh and with two slashes to his back made the Aburame fall to his knees. "You have focused yourself entirely on long distance, neglecting your taijutsu skills. You can't handle someone getting past your defenses!" The Kaguya said looking down at the heap that was Koh.

However Koh seemed to explode in bugs that immediately went on the attack, they followed Kimimaro who had already started to run but after a few seconds turned around and shot at them with another barrage of fingertips. Koh's bugs stopped chasing him and devoured the projectiles. Looking around Kimimaro tried to find Koh. "Back to your previous tactics? Hiding and striking from a distance using your clones… That will not do." Grabbing one of the bones that stuck out of his shoulder a seal on Kimimaro's chest started to glow red and spread out. "Dance of the camellia." Kimimaro threw the sword like bone he had just created and threw it towards a tree.

Koh's bugs immediately formed a cloud to stop the object of reaching its goals. However unlike previous bones this one didn't dissolve into crumbles. It struck the tree splitting it in two and revealing Koh with a hole in his shoulder. "You can't hide from me anymore."

Koh held his hand over the hole in his shoulder and with a few words filled it up with bugs. "Sacrificing your bugs to heal yourself. The way you fight is an abomination, you can't rely on your own strength and endurance and so you have to depend on your bugs."

Koh didn't let Kimimaro's words discourage him and formed three hand seals. "Secret technique: insect sphere." With those words the insects that were all around Kimimaro and the battlefield rushed towards the Kaguya. Kimimaro yelled when tens of thousands of the big red bugs lunged themselves at him.

Just moments later Kimimaro stopped moving, a sphere of bugs draining his chakra and eating away at his flesh and bones. However after ten seconds of nothing Koh felt something was wrong. Calling his bugs back he saw what remained of Kimimaro, the boy had no skin left on his body but his bones had covered him entirely. The bones had created an armor keeping his bugs from reaching the insides of the Kaguya.

Slowly the bones fell off as if it was a mere shell revealing an unblemished Kimimaro that before Koh could summon his bugs sat on top of a fallen Koh with two sword like bones in both hands at his throat. "You thought your bugs could eat away all my bones. I was afraid of that myself when my first attack failed. However, I can alter the density and make-up of my bones. Your bugs may be able to drain chakra and eat away the calcium of my normal bones but there was nothing they could do against the iron filled bones I used to protect myself."

The two blades that were pressed against his throat made Koh's breathing difficult. Kimimaro was faster than him and more durable, but there was one thing that Koh had over Kimimaro, Koh had prepared the battle field, or better said; Koh had expected someone to find him sooner or later and taken precautions accordingly. "You defensive and offensive prowess are impressive, but you lost when you came to me." All around them bugs started to collect creating buzzing sounds. "You see all this time you were fighting but didn't see. The moment you entered my battlefield you lost to the overwhelming force of my destruction bugs. For I am Aburame and I am legion." In the end his voice became distorted and his skin started to tear apart as hundreds of bugs crawled out of him.

Kimimaro's eyes widened, he was sure he had found the real one, not a clone. But when the boy's chest started to cave in he realized he was not just fighting an Aburame, he was fighting an army of insects. As fast as he could he made his shell of bones, but it was already too late, dozens of bugs had entered his body. Some through his ears, some through his mouth and nose. He would die there, there was no way he could survive being eaten from the inside out. "I won't go down that easily!" The cursed seal on his skin spread out once more and this time changed his entire body, gone was the pale skin for it was replaced by brown rock-hard skin instead. A tail sprouted from his tail bone and giant bones came out of his back. "If I will die here, I will take you with me." Placing his hand firmly on the ground and investing nearly all of his chakra Kimimaro used his final jutsu. "Sawarabi no mai." In an instant countless bones erupted from the ground, trees fell and boulders shattered. In a hundred meter radius everything was destroyed nothing escaped the Kaguya's wrath.

Koh had been able to fool the Kaguya up until that last jutsu, replacing himself with bunshins throughout the fight. However this last jutsu was problematic. Koh wasn't the fastest of shinobi nor the physically strongest, so when bones started to shoot out of the ground he tried his best, but to no avail. Right through his abdomen a bone had impaled him and he was slowly bleeding out. His bugs were desperately trying to eat their way through large bone but it proved to be made of sturdier material than the previous bones. So long as he was impaled he couldn't use his fake flesh jutsu… he couldn't muster up the strength to remove the bone himself.

Kimimaro wasn't faring much better, his eyes had already been eaten away and slowly hundreds of bugs were eating the rest of his body. It took seconds before the smile on Kimimaro's face became permanent.

Blood trickled out of Koh's mouth as he coughed. His hive was in a panicked state buzzing all around the bone filled field in uncoordinated patterns. "Get… Harry." He croaked out sending his bugs away leaving himself defenseless.

* * *

><p>There was no one left, piled upon each other bodies of the Oto-nin laid on the ground. Somewhere in their midst was Guren; the only one capable enough to last longer than five minutes against his onslaught. The only thing that bothered him was how smug Guren had been before she had fallen. "He has arrived." She'd wanted to say… But so far he hadn't seen anyone special. By now every Oto-ninja had been dealt with.<p>

And that meant he could stop his show of strength, he hadn't much left, perhaps a few more minutes before he would faint to due chakra exhaustion. Despite the fact that all the sound ninja were dead Harry couldn't sense either Yuugi or Koh. "Where are you guys?" he asked looking around him.

Harry made his way to the fields, there was no one there and that meant that Koh had succeeded in getting them all out of there. His feet nearly dragging behind him Harry started walking towards where the civilians should be stored. He walked past countless trees through the raging snow storm when all of a sudden the sound of the howling wind was replaced by the sound of thousands of buzzing bugs that colored his surroundings red. The bugs were moving erratically but were clearly making their way to him. It was as if the bugs were not being controlled… Koh always had them moving in coordinated swarms. "Koh!" Harry shockingly realized. "Something must be wrong… bring me to him!" Harry wasn't sure if the red creatures understood him but as if on cue the all started fly back.

Harry followed them until he could sense the familiar chakra of Koh, however it was faint, as if he was almost depleted. A few seconds later he saw what could only be described as a forest of bones. A gigantic field was covered by bones sticking out of the ground, trees had fallen and so had Koh. Just meters from where Harry was standing Koh hung in midair, held up only by the cone formed-bone that had pierced through his abdomen. "Shit!" Harry quickly made his way through the forest of bones when out of nowhere snakes, dozens of snakes, lunged themselves at him. Each snake easily the size of a large python, venom dripping from their teeth. Harry cursed. He had almost gotten to Koh. "Who's there?" he yelled out, evading the large reptilwa and even impaling one of them through the head with a kunai.

"Ku, ku ,ku." A hissing hoarse voice laughed out. "You've caused quite some chaos here, Uchiha-kun." Harry recognized that voice, he knew it all too well. It was the same voice that the parasite imbedded in his soul had had.

"Orochimaru." Harry spat out.


	33. The frozen moon falls part 1

AN: BAH, this chapter isn't finished. I know; sorry about that but I just needed to get rid of it, thus I decided to split it in two parts. Hopefuly you'll like this chapter as much as I do, I think that I'm getting better as a writer and it shows... But maybe that's just me being arrogant.

So yeah...

For the first time I will start with a reminder of how last chapter ended (it's been too long for any normal person to remember)

* * *

><p><em><strong>What happened last time:<strong>_

Harry followed them until he could sense the familiar chakra of Koh, however it was faint, as if he was almost depleted. A few seconds later he saw what could only be described as a forest of bones. A gigantic field was covered by bones sticking out of the ground, trees had fallen and so had Koh. Just meters from where Harry was standing Koh hung in midair, held up only by the cone formed-bone that had pierced through his abdomen. "Shit!" Harry quickly made his way through the forest of bones when out of nowhere snakes, dozens of snakes, lunged themselves at him. Each snake easily the size of a large python, venom dripping from their teeth. Harry cursed. He had almost gotten to Koh. "Who's there?" he yelled out, evading the large reptilians and even impaling on of them through the head with a kunai.

"Ku, ku ,ku." A hoarse hissing voice laughed out. "You've caused quite some chaos here, Uchiha-kun." Harry recognized that voice, he knew it all too well. It was the same voice that the parasite imbedded in his soul had had.

"Orochimaru." Harry spat out.

* * *

><p><strong>The frozen moon falls part 1<strong>

There was no chakra left. He couldn't body-pop, couldn't make a clone, couldn't do a thing against the monstrosity that stood in his way from reaching and helping Koh. The pale boy's skin which normally looked healthy by now looked as white as the bone it was impaled by. And Orochimaru just stood there, arms confidently folded over each other and a smug look on his face. "Mind moving to the side, I need to help my friend?" Harry asked, the answer he would receive was already set in stone.

Sweaty black hair dangled in front of his eyes, the snow hit his face and each spec of the white crystalized water felt like torture. Each moment seemed dragged out while waiting for Orochimaru to say something. To think the day would come once again that he would be thwarted by a boy with mortality issues. Orochimaru's grin widened. "Oh, Uchiha… The arrogance."

Harry's blood turned cold in that instant. This wasn't just Koh's life on the line. "What is it you want from me?" Harry asked, if Orochimaru had wanted to kill him he could've done so the instant he had laid eyes on him, there was no reason to doubt that fact.

"Ah, so no foreplay?" Orochimaru said with disappointment. "And here I was ready to start playing." Orochimaru started to walk towards him. Confident steps each making soft crunching sounds as the snow under his boots was pressed together. "I can appreciate your bloodlust, just smelling the rotting process of all these dead shinobi makes me shiver with glee."

It wasn't often anymore that Harry was intimidated, but the Sannin in front of him was doing a fine job of it. Yet Harry hadn't come this far by fearing that which stood in his way. "Orochimaru… we've released your hold on these mountains, I've defeated you once again. Are you sure you want to test what happens if I go all out against you, in person." With the little chakra he had recovered in the sparse few minutes since deactivating his Mangekyou he activated his Sharingan. "I remember you being beheaded the last time we met."

Here Orochimaru started to laugh. "In the state you are now, I wouldn't even have to try… You've cost me quite a lot of loyal followers, none of which weren't disposable." The purple ringed eyes narrowed. "But to even the score, let me take something from you." Orochimaru turned around and faster than Harry's tired eyes could follow he grabbed Koh's head and pulled at Koh's body. With a sickening orchestra of sounds Koh's flesh gave in to the overwhelming force that Orochimaru put it under. From his abdomen to his knee Koh's body had been ripped in two.

Koh didn't die that very instant. While Harry rushed towards him Koh made a few choking sounds, hundreds if not thousands of bugs sped towards their host, as if to blanket him from reality, from the harsh truth that in seconds he would die, bleed out. They covered Koh with their own bodies. For a moment through unshed tears Harry could see the utter sadness that radiated from the red destruction bugs.

Harry stopped mid-way to Koh, there was no time for mourning on the battlefield. Not for enemies and not for friends. Swallowing the bile that rose in his throat he steeled himself. Koh wouldn't want Harry to make stupid mistakes, 'act logical' Koh's voice whispered in his head but the whisper went unnoticed by the thundering noise of his hatred towards this man. "I. Will. End. You." He had no chakra left, but that didn't mean he wasn't capable of irrevocably tearing Orochimaru's body apart, piece by piece.

"Ku. Ku. Ku. Oh dear Uchiha Haru, how foolish." Orochimaru licked Koh's blood that had spattered on his face off with his unnaturally long tongue. "I've fought stronger and more talented Uchiha than you and survived. But if it is death you want, I'll gladly bring your corpse to your dear brother, Itachi. Perhaps I'll even wear it."

Looking behind Orochimaru Koh's body lay still, unmoving. The bugs were still covering him, trying to protect him but it was useless. There was no chakra left inside the body and his heart had stopped pumping around the little blood he had left. An immense sense of grief overcame Harry and once more Koh's voice spoke to him 'act logical.' He could see this going in two ways, he could attack the snake summoner, give it all he had and die as quickly as his friend had died. Or he could do the logical thing, run away, don't look back and count his blessings.

Orochimaru started to walk towards him again, slow confident strides filled with hidden skill. Each step could be the last one for Harry. 'Act logical.' The logical thing to do was run, but Harry never ran. Not as an Uchiha and certainly not as a Potter. 'Act logical.' One more glance at Koh before Harry turned around and started to run. Pride had no place on the battlefield when you were a shinobi, he would be no good to anyone, not himself, not Koh and certainly not Yuugi if he fought Orochimaru head on in his current state.

"Not so fast." Orochimaru hissed while grabbing Harry by his throat. His Sharingan had already faded, his chakra had been depleted and there was nothing he could do against the vise grip of Orochimaru's cold fingers. "I'm not done with you." With a swing of his arm Orochimaru threw Harry against one of the bones. "Give me your all, little Uchiha. Show me you're not just spit and bark, show me your claws."

His back ached, but he had dealt with worse. Orochimaru stood in front of him, surrounded by the forest of bones the only way out was through the Sannin. 'If only I could buy some time… I could body pop away.' Looking around him Harry once again saw Koh's body. 'I should take him with me… he deserves that much.' Taking out six kunai from one of his holsters Harry dashed forward, holding the kunai between his fingers in both hands Harry attacked Orochimaru. "You wanted claws… I can give you claws." His movements were sluggish compared to how he normally moved his body; but without chakra to strengthen his muscles, and speed him up he could only rely on his natural speed and flexibility.

Orochimaru simply kicked Harry in the gut. "You are a disappointment… Your heart is not into this fight… Have you already forgotten your hatred for me? Perhaps you need more of an incentive?"

"You killed Rin-sensei and Koh." Harry said kneeling on the ground, the bastard's kick had made him keel over. "Hatred is not big enough a word to describe my feelings toward you." Slowly Harry got up again.

A distorted grin appeared on Orochimaru, too wide, too malicious. "But don't you see, little Haru. You are just like me. Killing because people stand in your way, because they work for someone you loath. You and your little team have no right to preach, because in the end," Here Orochimaru's face got eerily close to Harry. "You are nothing but a ruthless killer."

Harry laughed, he genuinely laughed at that statement. "Oh boy, you think mind games like that work on me? Expected my mind to shatter apart by that statement? Orochimaru, you have no idea of the amount of blood on these hands." Harry raised both of them as if to show it. "Comparing me to you is like comparing gods with sheep." Harry nearly had enough chakra to body pop. All he needed was one more minute. "Let me show you, no let me introduce you to the concept of death."

Orochimaru had a bemused look on his face, and simply waited for Harry to make good on his word. He hadn't expected, he couldn't have expected what would happen next. Harry took Orochimaru's hand, grabbed it tightly. Green eyes seemed to glow "I commend you, my servant; appear before me!" It had been years since he had last summoned him, but perhaps it could buy him the time he needed. "Show your face to this man." Around Orochimaru and Harry the world grew black and silent. Orochimaru looked intrigued at the whole ordeal

"Oh, you are full of surprises, we're not in a genjutsu… this is real!" the Sannin mused out loud.

Suddenly the cold temperature made way for even colder winds. "You requested my presence, master?" a disembodied voice breathed out.

Harry let go of Orochimaru and smirked. It had worked. "Hello Death." Orochimaru gasped at hearing that. "I want you to meet Orochimaru." Before the Sannin's very own eyes a cloaked figure materialized. "Orochimaru, this is Death."

"Extraordinary." Orochimaru said inclining his head. "Oh yes, yes you will be the perfect body for me after I sealed your will away." Taking a step forward and reaching for the cloaked entity with his hand Orochimaru shivered as his hand went through the fabric. "So you're Death?"

Death simply ignored the Sannin. "Child, I have no sovereignty in this realm. Why did you summon me?"

Smirking, Harry backed away from Orochimaru. "I just needed you to stall for me, thank you." With those words Harry knelt down and grabbed the body of Koh that he had slowly maneuvered himself towards and with a loud crack, didn't disappear.

"You're not getting away that easily… not when you just showed me something this interesting." Though Orochimaru didn't look at Harry, didn't feel bothered with him in the slightest, the glee in his voice made Harry aware of the disgusting look the creep had on his face. "I've kept a close eye on you Uchiha, and I know how your transportation jutsu works, better yet, I know how to keep you from getting away."

"Death, help me out here!" Harry said panic rising up, his plan had been stopped and there weren't many options left.

"I told you once before, I am not the Death of this world… You haven't even gotten close to mastering my brother." Slowly the world around them returned to normal as Death faded away Harry saw the bright-red burning seals that circled around him, that must've been Orochimaru's trap that kept him there. "I am sorry my master…"

Harry cursed. "No! I didn't reveal that card for nothing!" Letting go of Koh Harry activated his Sharingan again. The chakra he had collected didn't waste when he failed his attempt to body pop.

"Oh my, Uchiha. Have you not noticed just how useless your struggle is. I am the one mountain you can't climb. Just give up, release your will and let me have your body, I will give you something in return. Or we can do this the hard way, I could draw out all your chakra, lock away your will and forcibly take your body, followed by a lifetime of anguish." Orochimaru by now had grabbed Harry by the throat again. "To me, it doesn't matter. I've designed your body to become mine, I own you; I can do with you whatever I wish, I can break you and rebuild you piece by piece. Your well-being is of no consequence to me, but to a certain Hyuuga I found being dragged through the snow it just might make the difference between life and death."

The words seeped through Harry's mind like rain through mud, by the time those words really impacted Harry he felt his head get lighter as the oxygen flow stopped. His eyes opened wide when realization hit him like a brick wall. Orochimaru's grip loosened making Harry draw a breath before tightening it again. "Give me your body and I will let her leave, let her go back to the village. Just one simple word will suffice, Uchiha. Just say it and she-" Orochimaru moved to the side revealing another Orochimaru, a clone, walking up to them dragging an unconscious Yuugi by the hair with him. "She will live."

Orochimaru already had taken so many people from him. Rin, his sensei had been slaughtered by the sannin's' hands. Koh had literally been ripped to shreds while the monster laughed. And there laid Yuugi, innocent Yuugi. The only member of the original team twelve that was left in this world other than himself. "Yuugi?" Harry let out in a soft cry.

"Ah yes, that's the girls name isn't it?" Orochimaru's clone slapped her in the face. "Too bad she isn't from the main branch. Those eyes hold secrets even from me, to experiment on them just once would be… interesting." Yuugi's eyes fluttered open when Orochimaru's clone struck her once more. Her battered face looked fragile but her eyes were so fierce. They were like steel, and then she saw the body of Koh lying behind Harry and one single tear escaped her.

Orochimaru let go of Harry and kneeled in front of Yuugi. "Life is so fragile isn't it, Hyuuga?" from the ground he took one of Koh's bugs between his fingers and kept it in front of her eyes. "Your teammate gets to decide what happens to you, just as he was the one who got to decide what happened to your friend over there… He was your friend right?" Orochimaru licked his lips and drawled out his words as if they were poisonous needles that he slowly tortured her with. "He decided his life was worth more than your friend's over there." With one squeeze Orochimaru killed the red bug with bits and pieces flying around.

"Let her go Orochimaru- she has nothing to do with this." Harry said, his voice raw in defeat. "I … If you let her go… I will let y-"

"No!" Yuugi screamed, a look of rage went over Orochimaru and his clone grabbed her head as if to twist it around, and for one moment she looked directly into Harry's eyes and even without probing her mind he knew what she wanted him to do. What she needed him to do. This was not the time to admit defeat. This was not the time to throw away principles because it was the easy way out. He had to do the right thing. Harry forced the tiny bit of chakra he had to make a mental link with Yuugi and for one moment they had eternity.

In their minds there was no Orochimaru, just her and him. "He killed Koh." Harry said, admittedly not the best conversation starter.

"He killed Rin-sensei." Yuugi added. "He's too dangerous to keep alive. He's hurt so many people… Harry." Yuugi took hold of his hands. "I know that you care, perhaps you care too much about others to hide your heart but I need you to make the right decision. My life is forfeit, there is nothing I can do; my last battle took everything out of me. I have no chakra left and my muscles are ripped to shreds."

"I am so sorry, Yuugi. This is all my fault… If I-" Harry started but Yuugi didn't let him finish.

"No Harry, we as a team decided to do this. And we will not die in vain- we will die fighting, proud and honorable. We couldn't have foreseen this. No one knows what ripples they make in the pond of life, I certainly didn't. But we did it for the right reasons. I think we're heroes. Koh is a hero. You are a hero. And If I die as a hero- If I die having fought the right fight I would've died as one of the three shinobi that has saved Kuwain. And that is a title worthy of having died for." With a hand she cupped Harry face.

Harry looked up at her and slowly his appearance changed. He grew and his face lost some of its sharp edges and his eyes became even greener. Before her stood a man, not a boy but an honest to god man. Strong arms wrapped around her and held her closely to him. "I am sorry it has come to this Yuugi. Sometimes I forget just how fragile life is. Just how fragile the people around me are… I have often done the easy thing thinking it was the right thing. But today I will do the thing that is right even if it is the hardest thing I'll ever have to do. But before I will unseal it, I want to tell you one last thing." Yuugi looked at him in awe, for some reason she was mesmerized by him, his words, and his tone. The way he carried himself and the influence he had over her. Each word felt like a secret he could share only with her and it made her feel special, made her feel important. "To the well-organized mind, death is but a next great adventure. So don't fear it; for it will come and it will be grand. Make sure to treasure each moment and perhaps we will see each other again, someday."

Harry hugged Yuugi while his heart ached for her. He had helped many souls crossover but never one as close to him as Yuugi. "Our time is almost up Yuugi."

Yuugi's eyes moistened. "I'm scared to let go."

Firmly Harry held her shoulders with his hands. "That is alright. You don't have to, I'll hold you for as long as you need me to."

Yuugi nodded. "There is a lot you haven't told us… I always knew we weren't seeing the real you but this, I hadn't expected this. I always thought you just acted braver than you actually were. That you tried so hard to keep up with us, I can see now that it wasn't you trying to keep up with us but the other way around. You were so far ahead of us…" Slowly Yuugi became less tangible as her soul moved on.

"Say hello to Rin and Koh will you… Tell them I'm sorry." Harry whispered to her and Yuugi nodded before she nearly faded away.

"It's so beautiful." She said as the last remnants of her being dispersed, her soul having moved on leaving Harry behind with nothing in his hands but air.

That one moment they shared outside of their bodies ended when Yuugi passed on. Harry stood still, Orochimaru had snapped Yuugi's neck as if it was only a twig.

Orochimaru just let the body drop to the ground, like a bag of flesh and bones that held no value at all. Harry felt like his heart was being ripped out. They had all died. And three times in a row he hadn't been able to do a thing. It was said that history repeated itself, but Harry's history was so long, so dreadfully filled with heartache and sorrow that for some reason he felt numb after the initial pain of loss. Harry just stared at the lifeless heap of flesh and clothing on the ground in front of him.

"Oh, it seems I've broken you." Orochimaru cackled. "Who knew this was all it took to break your spirit. To break your will. It's a disappointment really. But then again, it's you own fault- standing up to me? How pathetic." With a great gesture Orochimaru leaned forward to come face to face with Harry.

But instead of defeated eyes devoid of life and fire Orochimaru looked into two orbs filled with passion. Filled with love for those he had lost. While time seemed to stand still Harry's eyes bled, blood pooling on his eyelids. Green eyes changed into the Mangekyou and from seemingly nowhere black flames erupted from his pupils, flames that charged at Orochimaru, ready to consume him. As fast as his eyes had changed the Mangekyou Sharingan disappeared.

For a moment Orochimaru seemed to burn to a crisp but the black flames soon burned themselves up while the Sannin simply clapped his hands- having switched places with his clone. "Oh to think I'd get to see the legendary flames of Amaterasu. You truly are my masterpiece."

Harry didn't react, he simply grabbed a scroll from his backpack and unsealed it, revealing another scroll that he opened. Orochimaru looked with interest at what he was doing. "Oh we're going to do a round two? You're going to make me work for my prize. That's okay, I like my prey to bite back."

Harry spread his fingers as far apart as he could and placed them on the scroll, his fingertips glowing with blue chakra. "Ten anchored tomoe seal- Release." He hadn't opened the scroll because he had promised it to be a last resort. And his promise had cost him dearly. But he knew this was the moment it was needed, the power of a hundred Jounin- the only kind of power that could possibly help him defeat a Sannin.

At first nothing happened, but as Harry released a breath he didn't know he was holding the scroll reacted to his commend. The ten tomoe started to unfold themselves and red chakra started to spew out of it like water out of a geyser. Harry stood on the seal and let the chakra enter him while he made the tell-tale hand seal for a shadow clone but something went wrong.

Something went horribly wrong when Harry's green eyes made way for blood-red eyes with a slanted pupil.

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><p>'Hmmm, interesting, this boy keeps finding new ways to keep me entertained.' Orochimaru mused to himself. "So what are you going to do with that scroll?" He asked- the Uchiha didn't react when he rested his fingers on the paper, slowly the child raised himself to his full height and looked at him in defiance.<p>

Suddenly chakra seemed to pour out of the scroll and Orochimaru shuddered when he recognized the feeling that accompanied the red mist. The Uchiha seemed to absorb the chakra. "ku. ku. ku." Orochimaru felt his heart beat faster. "You're certainly full of surprises, using the power of a Bijuu to help you." Before him the Uchiha roared to the sky, the chakra bubbled around him and with unnatural speed the boy dashed forward.

Red claws of chakra surrounded the boy's hands, but to Orochimaru it didn't mean much. He had fought jinchuuriki before, and he had hardly tried with the last jinchuuriki of the one-tailed demon. But this chakra wasn't just one-tail, behind the Uchiha three tails sprouted. The boy was obviously no longer in control of his own body. The will of the Kyuubi, for it was without a doubt the nine-tails' chakra, was too strong for the weakened Uchiha. All that stood before him was a body with too much chakra and rage.

Orochimaru, not feeling like dodging any longer, collected some chakra in his lungs and blew the boy away with a gust of wind. The Uchiha flew back at first until two of his tails latched onto Orochimaru. 'That chakra, it has a will of its own…' Opening his mouth Orochimaru used his Kusanagi to cut through the tails. It was already too late though, for Haru had already pulled himself closer and was ready to punch him in the face.

The fist connected with his nose and for the first time in this battle blood was drawn from him. "I see. The Kyuubi has entirely taken over." Orochimaru grabbed the boy by his throat but when he did the two tails that had reformed started to choke him instead. It was quite amusing if it wasn't for the fact that the Kyuubi powered chakra was actually able to damage his host's body.

Orochimaru substituted himself with the body of the girl he had killed just under a minute ago. The Uchiha wasn't so easily distracted though and let go of her the instant it realized what happened. "So a piece of understanding remains in the core of all that bloodlust. How truly interesting. I wonder how that seal works… it will be the first thing your mind will reveal to me once I've taken over. Ku. ku. ku."

The boy roared to the sky, for the first time Orochimaru could see that his canines had elongated to twice their size. The boy started to collect chakra between the tips of his three tails. "Oh my, a Bijuu bomb?" Quickly, knowing how incredibly fast the attack would be, Orochimaru bit his thumb and planted it on the ground. The ball of chakra had stopped forming, the color changing from dark purple to black and back. "Summoning jutsu: Triple gates of hell; Rashoumon." Between him and the pseudo jinchuuriki three enormous gates rose from the ground.

With a guttural scream the boy released his destructive jutsu and Orochimaru could feel the atmosphere change with the release of such a power. However his gates proved to be as sturdy as always, the chakra attack had nearly destroyed the first gate but the second and third one remained standing. Not needing the gates any longer Orochimaru released his hold on them and they vanished.

The scene around them had changed. No longer was there a forest of bones amid the fallen snow. Plumes of smoke and barren land surrounded them. The boy however didn't seem to be impressed by his show of power. Before Orochimaru could voice his musings the Uchiha dashed forward once again; despite just using enormous amounts of chakra the boy seemed to still be overwhelmed by the Kyuubi and it showed; sloppy taijutsu trying to harm him. In the span of just three seconds the boy launched a good dozen kicks and punches. But Orochimaru could easily avoid them all.

"Your entertainment value is dropping rapidly… a mindless beast- that's so far beneath what I created you to be." Once again Orochimaru took hold of the boy's neck. "Fuuin; -"

However when he prepared his other hand to strike the boy a giant blue ball of chakra connected with his back. "Oodama Rasengan."

Quickly Orochimaru used his specially created shedding skin jutsu and simply created a new body for himself while his old body spat him out. "Ku. ku. ku. So the failure has decided to show up again, Have you learned nothing from the past; Jiraiya?"

While the Kyuubi powered Uchiha restarted his rampage and went after him again, Orochimaru sighed and turned to face the white haired man. "It is so like you to come at the most inopportune of times…"

Jiraiya frowned. "It is time for you to be taken down Orochimaru." The white haired man's eyes narrowed. "What is he? Another test-subject gone wrong?"

"Oh no, he didn't go wrong. Not at all." Orochimaru said while the Uchiha lunged at him once again; trying to have a conversation with his old teammate while having to keep up with the Kyuubi powered boy was taxing, even on him. Jiraiya could attack again at any moment and while he was sure that he could take the both of them on, it would be a long and drawn out battle. "I'd even say he has surpassed my expectations." Orochimaru grabbed the boy by his hand and threw him at Jiraiya who simply jumped back.

The Uchiha roared, his chakra flaring and once again his tails going rigid. 'Another Bijuu bomb…' Orochimaru once again bit his thumb. Perhaps the resulting explosion would harm his advisories instead of him. However before he even placed his hand on the ground Jiraiya did something unexpected and put a piece of paper on the unsuspecting Uchiha's forehead. Instantly the Kyuubi's chakra vanished, dissipating as if it was nothing. "Time for you to sleep kid." Jiraiya caught the boy who sloppily fell down as if knocked out and gently laid him on the ground.

Orochimaru used the moments that Jiraiya spent on the boy to collect his chakra and go through a set of hand seals; fighting Jiraiya wasn't something he could afford to not take seriously. Besides that, it was time to teach his old teammate the lesson he had tried to learn him all those years ago; he was just a loser.

* * *

><p>Harry awoke to the feeling of warmth washing over his skin. It took a while before he realized what had happened to him before he had fallen into the Kyuubi's rage. Yuugi. Koh. They were both dead. They died. They were murdered. They were taken from him. And it was all his fault, at least it felt like that.<p>

The warmth intensified and Harry had trouble breathing as the air had turned dry and ash-filled. Opening his eyes Harry saw the mother of all flames raging through the air. A giant horizontal pillar of fire that nibbled at him, his hair was already singed by the heat. Harry closed his eyes when the fire was unmistakably doused out by an even more impressive jet of water. "Using them; how perverse have you gotten?" A low voice rolled through the air.

The water partly evaporated but the rest fell to the ground, drenching Harry in the cold liquid. The water that washed over him made him realize something. He felt rejuvenated, as if he had just slept for a week. With that realization something else dawned on him. A fight was taking place and he was in the middle of the battleground. As if by reflex Harry used the jutsu that mimicked the workings of apparition- but it didn't work as a circle of red seals lit up and bounded him to his place. "Damn it, I forgot about Orochimaru preventing me from body-popping."

'I wonder what went wrong when I used the Kyuubi's chakra… one moment I'm in control over my body. The other I'm suddenly in the middle of a battlefield. Well, whatever happened it fully restored my chakra…'

"Ku. ku. ku. How can you call me perverse when you're the one who's been making a fool of the title of Sannin?" Orochimaru's voice said. "Your very existence is a perversion. How low have _you_ fallen that you can't even stand toe to toe with these two anymore? I expected better from you Jiraiya. I've always respected you for your brute force. But it seems you've gotten old, old and weak. And I despise the weak." Harry looked up and saw Orochimaru standing behind two ninja's that looked as if they were dried up, cracked skin with almost no color. But what caught Harry's attention was not how they looked but who they looked like. There stood both the first and second Hokage. The two brothers that had died decades ago. Harry knew of only one jutsu that was capable of something like this- He had read all about it after all, on the day of the massacre in "The theory of Senju Tobirama"

What happened next; Harry wasn't sure of but somehow everything around him turned black. He couldn't see anything. Yet he was sure that he was still conscious, he could hear the sounds of footsteps, rushing footsteps that got dangerously close to him. Though Harry was sure no one had noticed him being awake yet. Carefully he took off the seal on his forehead he could feel suppressing his chakra, the piece of paper came off easily- whoever had put it on him hadn't wanted to subdue him, just the Kyuubi's chakra.

With the seal of Harry had to think; there were two options open to him. One, he could flee, run away as fast as he could and let Orochimaru fight whomever had interfered. Two, Harry could try to assist the person facing off against three of Konoha's legendary ninja's. The decision wasn't difficult to make, Harry hadn't lived his life running away, he had lived his life with facing impossible odds and getting out of bizarre situations stronger.

For now he was safe and unnoticed and that brought certain advantages, he could dismantle the seal that was keeping him from body-popping away, when he had tried to body-pop earlier the seal had appeared around him which meant that it was on his person somewhere. Harry had read about seals and their workings on humans but most of his knowledge didn't come from his readings; it came from the practical knowledge he had accumulated by practicing with runes.

The key to dismantling a rune-array that was connected to a human was to find the element it originated from. Concentrating his chakra Harry searched for the seal, which he found on his ankle. It was a simple tiny black bar. The chakra nature was obviously earth, something that Harry had expected. After all what would be a better counter to travel than the earth itself.

Inspecting the seal Harry found the work to be incredibly crude. 'This seal, it only has the bare minimal to actually work… no safety net; nothing. I can take care of this easily enough.'

* * *

><p>Jiraiya grunted, why did they have to use genjutsu on him. Of all the ninja arts- it had to be the one he was least proficient in. He knew about this genjutsu of course, it was an advanced form of sight manipulating genjutsu that wasn't stopped by merely stopping the flow of chakra or hurting one self. No- the only way to stop it was to hit whoever had cast it. Problem was, he was fighting two Hokages that both knew how to perform the jutsu and that both were extremely capable of dodging any taijutsu now that his sight was impaired.<p>

However, the bringer of darkness genjutsu wasn't without flaws, it only blocked sight which meant that he still had his other senses to guide him through this fight. Behind him the earth shivered as a tree exploded into being. It was a distraction, the attack would come from the opposite side; petty tricks like that wouldn't work on him. Going through a set of hand seals Jiraiya used one of his most effective defenses. "Hari Jizo!" He said as his hair extended, covering his entire body. A punch connected with the needlefied hair, he skidded back slightly from the impact but the genjutsu still held true, so it was the other one.

Using the second part of the Hari Jizo Jiraiya shot the hardened hair as needles through the air around him, the sheer amount of needles would assure that at least one of them connected with whomever was using the jutsu.

And indeed, Tobirama's skin was scratched by one of the needle's he had tried to dodge. The darkness that surrounded Jiraiya retreated; with that out of the way it was time to get rid of the two Hokages. "It's a shame to betray your images this way." Jiraiya took the giant scroll he always carried on his back and opened it. The first part revealed the summoning contract he had with the toads be he unrolled it further. A good many seals went by before Jiraiya stopped unrolling it. As every ninja worth their salt Jiraiya had a way to storage the bodies of those he had killed- it wasn't capable of storing living creatures but anything dead could be sealed away. "But your bodies aren't real; are they? Just mere caskets of dust animated by nature chakra… I am sorry, Shodaime, Nidaime. Sensei always spoke highly of you."

The two Hokage didn't react to Jiraiya's words and had already started their own attack, the Nidaime simply made a one handed seal before water started to circle around him, the Shodaime in stark contrast decided to try his chances with taijutsu and went to attack Jiraiya with dazzling speed. It was perfectly timed because when Jiraiya dodged the first's attack he was backed into the quickly expanding swirling vortex created by Tobirama. Jiraiya bit back a scream as the water tried to skin him alive.

He needed time, just a few seconds would be enough. While water was bashing, cutting and shaving his skin Jiraiya spared Orochimaru one glance. His face was unreadable, he didn't look entertained or particularly invested in the fight between his old teammate and the first Hokages. It stung.

Jiraiya put his hands together- quite the feat considering the high amounts of pressure the swirling vortex put him under. He didn't need to draw blood as his hands were already bleeding a bit. "Summoning jutsu." A giant cloud of smoke erupted and the water stopped swirling around after coming into contact with an unmovable wall.

"Whatcha summon me now for, Jiraiya-chan." A giant toad asked while looking around him and taking in the destruction.

"I'm fighting Orochimaru and he summoned the first and second Hokage…" Jiraiya jumped of the toad's head he had been standing on and retrieved the scroll he had lost possession of when the First Hokage had attacked. "Can you hold them off, for just a minute? I need the other two for my plan to work; but they take time to summon."

A second of silence took hold of the battlefield, the two Hokages were standing on opposing sides of the giant toad and both were preparing to attack in full force. "Alway' summonin' me when you're in trouble. Still the same kid. But sure, I'll help ya, time to kick that snake bastard's ass."

* * *

><p>"Release." Harry murmured before the seal that Orochimaru had planted on him went up in smoke. Just in time as well because out of nowhere a giant sword clashed with the place he just body-popped away from. Now he was up in the air- one of the few places where he felt like he belonged. This high up he could see the kind of destruction that had taken place.<p>

When they had started their mission the mountains had been covered in snow, pristine white was all the eye could see. The only thing that had looked like it didn't belong was the mist bank… but now the ground was barren, hardly any trees had survived and between the few white dots of snow lay pools of blood and dead bodies. Somewhere, Harry wasn't sure where, Koh and Yuugi laid.

From way up here it seemed almost impassible that someone as tiny as humans had been capable of causing such a drastic change in scenery. But Harry had learned the power of humans in this realm- the power his adversaries held and more importantly the power he held himself.

Slowly he began to descend- Orochimaru looked up. And he activated his Sharingan, his trusted bloodline limit would be aiding him in this battle. The two Hokages were fighting a giant toad- which suited him just fine, at this moment the only thing he wanted to concentrate on was Orochimaru.

"Hishou no shikkyaku komettos" Harry said creating a dozen explosive bunshin. This was one of his original jutsu- Flight of the falling comets. The exploding bunshin could body pop to wherever, and whoever just as fast as he could and once they reached their destination, that very instant they would explode. Orochimaru was strong, he was fast- faster than Harry was by a long shot and durable. However even Orochimaru wouldn't be able to keep track and dodge twelve instantaneous explosions.

The first explosion happened just as planned. Orochimaru was blasted to the side, scorch marks blackening his face. The second, third and fourth explosion happened all at the same time. Three explosions that surrounded Orochimaru. The man's scream could be heard even all the way up where Harry slowly fell. It felt awkwardly comforting, to know Orochimaru was in pain- it dulled the ache in his heart.

The following eight explosions took place in quick succession. Meanwhile Harry had almost reached the ground. But he knew better than to let himself crash into the earth. With one thought and just a tiny spec of chakra he stood over Orochimaru's mangled body; he missed an arm and there was hardly any skin left on his face. "Was that all you could take?" Harry asked out loud.

When Orochimaru's mouth opened causing cracks in his crispy skin, his jaw unhinged, Orochimaru climbed out of his own mouth while buckets of saliva seemed to smooth the process. Harry didn't let the Sannin complete the process without any interference, there was no reason to let this man get the upper hand once more. Collecting chakra Harry created two wooden spikes in his palms and stabbed Orochimaru's heart.

The man didn't even try to dodge or deflect the attack but just let it pierce him. He hung his head and let his hair conceal his face. Something felt wrong- Instead of chakra slowly depleting in Orochimaru's body it was quickly building up. Orochimaru raised his head with a wicked grin stretching his mouth so wide that his lips thinned too impossible lines. "You think that an attack like that could ever take me down?" Harry backed away- the sight before him was discouraging to say the least.

Orochimaru had taken two spikes to the heart as if it were mere scratches. He could laugh such damage away… And laugh he did. A manic laugh escaped the sannin's throat while he slowly pulled the wooden spikes out. "It amuses me to no end to see your futile attempts at killing me." Orochimaru placed one hand, open, in front of his mouth and blew out. Suddenly the wind picked up speed and power- so much power. Harry was pulled of off the ground and blasted away. Orochimaru didn't stop there though. The man quickly followed him and somewhere along the way picked up a sword.

Harry didn't let Orochimaru press on his attack any further. Unlike Orochimaru Harry was perfectly capable of dying from wounds like the one he had inflicted on Orochimaru. While still being moved by the powerful wind attack Harry body popped away creating a safe distance between himself and the Sannin.

Meanwhile Harry could see what had happened behind him while he had skirmished with Orochimaru. The two resurrected Hokages were fighting with the giant toad that wielded the nearly as giant sword. The toad seemed to hold his own in the battle but the two hokages didn't seem quite as interested in him as they were interested in the man sitting on top of the amphibians head. The man's white hair moved in the wind while the toad was jumping and swinging his blade; yet the man was sitting perfectly still. 'Who would face off against two kages and only let his summon fight?' and then something clicked. Toad summons, white hair, strong enough to keep up with two Hokage. There on top of a giant toad sat the Toad Sage himself- Jiraiya of the Sannin.

A small burst of something bloomed in Harry's heart- if someone as strong as Jiraiya was here, than perhaps the odds weren't as stacked in Orochimaru's favor as he had presumed previously. However, there was no time to distract himself with observing what happened on the other side of this battlefield. Orochimaru was already diminishing the distance between them. 'I can't let Orochimaru get too close. He's too fast in hand to hand combat for even my Sharingan to keep track of, or better said, my body to keep track of. As long as there is distance between us I can attack him without having to worry too much.'

Creating a lightning bunshin Harry let his Sharingan remember one of the more deadly jutsu he had copied from Kakashi. The bunshin raced towards Orochimaru, however when it almost met Orochimaru it jumped up, letting Orochimaru pass him. Orochimaru didn't seem too concerned with this and kept rushing towards Harry. Harry raised his hand above his head "Thunder transmission" he said and between him and his bunshin a line of lightning formed that chirped and cracked in the wind. The bunshin quickly fell to the ground and so the lightning cleanly cut Orochimaru in half. Both sides still moving forward from the momentum but quickly falling to the ground as well.

However, what happened next looked like it came straight out of a bad comic book. Both sides of Orochimaru seemed to explode in snakes that quickly wrapped around each other and pulled the body back together without even a scar. "Kuh kuh kuh. Uchiha, you sure are feisty." Orochimaru gloated before making the snake seal with his hands. Chakra, heavier; far heavier than his own filled the distance between them and in one instant Orochimaru raised the ground they stood on to impossible heights. Harry tried to move but the sheer pressure kept him glued to the ground.

'What could he possibly have to gain by doing this?' However, Harry soon found out when everywhere around them trees started to emerge from the ground- trees that unlike the pine trees that were supposed to grow in these mountains had leafs on them. The same as back in Konoha. 'If Orochimaru hadn't put us above that onslaught… I wouldn't have survived.' And all of the sudden some irrational feeling took over. Orochimaru killed Rin, Orochimaru killed Yuugi, Orochimaru tore Koh's body up, yet he went out of his way to keep him alive. Why take everyone he cared about away but keep him alive? "Why are you so bent on keeping me alive. WHY? What kind of person are you to keep me alive when it hurts so much!" Harry shouted, tears forming in his eyes making his sight blurry.

Orochimaru didn't react at first, he simply stood there. "Because I own you."

* * *

><p>Jiraiya stopped his meditation, the time for preparing was over- it was time to act. Gamabunta was wounded, the two Hokage had pushed the toad boss as far as he could be pushed. "Thank you for your help Gamabunta."Jiraiya said before the toad under his feet dispersed into smoke. 'not even a goodbye huh? Must've taken more out of you than I expected." Jiraiya gracefully landed on the ground. The two Hokage were circling around him- both taking advantage of the cover that the forest of the First had created. It didn't bother Jiraiya all that much. He had entered this battle without preparing too well, he had rushed to the city of Kuwain when he received the message of the Third Hokage. He had arrived to a ghost town, at first he had wondered what could've possible happened to empty an entire down when he had felt the spike in chakra just up the mountain.<p>

And now he stood here, engaged in a battle with two of the strongest shinobi to have ever walked this earth. "Summoning jutsu; Two elder toads." With a puff of smoke the two toads sat on his shoulders.

"Jiraiya chan! First you summon Bunta while we're eating dinner. And now you summon the both of us. What the heck is going on with you?" Shima croaked. Shima was the female elder toad while her husband Fukasaku sat on the opposite shoulder and simply remained quiet.

Slumping his shoulders, nearly making the two elder toads fall off, Jiraiya sighed. "Orochimaru used the 'Edo Tensei' technique and summoned the first and second Hokage. I need the two of you to restrict their movement so I can safely seal them away."

"You're not going to use that seal are you?" Fukasaku asked with foreboding in his voice. Shima looked at Jiraiya with widened eyes.

"No, there is no need to go that far; not while I still can just store them away like any other corpse." Jiraiya responded.

"I don't know, Jiraiya-chan. This doesn't feel the same as the jutsu that Tobirama used…" Shima paused for a second and closed her eyes to concentrate. "It is definitely not the same. Orochimaru took it a step further- he used living bodies to bind the souls."

Jiraiya swallowed. "Shit… that complicates things."

"The only way to deal with this… is to get Orochimaru to unsummon them. Where is he anyway?" Fukasaku looked around but couldn't see him.

"Orochimaru… he's fighting some kid."

"Fighting some kid! What kind of irresponsible shinobi are you? Letting a child take care of Orochimaru? To think-" Fukasaku was cut off by Shima who slapped his head.

"Can't you feel it, you old grump? Jiraiya didn't just let some genin fight that man… That boy has some incredible chakra." Shima cleared her throat. "Now, Jiraiya chan. Let these two Kage up to us. Help that boy and get Orochimaru to stop the Edo Tensei."

Jiraiya nodded and while the two elder toads jumped off his shoulder Jiraiya darted away. The two hokages tried to follow and attack Jiraiya the instant he moved but the elder toads didn't let them do that. Two tongues wrapped around the kages and held them in place.

* * *

><p>"You think you own me? You think you created me?" The irrational feeling that had taken over earlier seemed to change, still irrational but less hopeless." What do you think you are? God? Orochimaru; you're nothing more than a mortal man wiaahhh-" Harry started his rant but was stopped when Orochimaru darted forward and punched Harry in the gut faster than Harry could follow.<p>

"Don't talk of things you have no understanding of." Orochimaru punched Harry again- this time he doubled over and spat out blood which splattered over Orochimaru's forearm. "I am the immortal white snake, I am Orochimaru." Orochimaru raised his leg to knee Harry but Harry grinned and took used the knee as a way to jump.

"You've met Death and still believe you're immortal? Death comes to all- even if you're able to prolong your life. Eventually your time is up." Harry landed behind Orochimaru and with more effort than he liked went through the hand seals to release a torrent of flames that washed over Orochimaru. Using the flames as a distraction Harry body popped away to the other side of the heightened tableau.

Orochimaru walked through the flames as if it didn't hurt him in the slightest- it probably didn't. The Sannin was so strong… the only reasonable thing to do was run away. But he couldn't, his heart was filled with anger; his head filled with the idea of revenge. For Koh, Rin, Shimekukuri and Yuugi. "It seems normal jutsu just don't affect you…"

"Ah; so you finally understand how futile your attempts at resisting me are?" Orochimaru said brushing off some soot of his clothes. "Stop your struggles- just give yourself willingly to my salvation. I can make the pain go away." Orochimaru said with a sincerity that made Harry's knee's shake. He really believed in himself.

"That's not what I meant. The Sharingan knows three states. Many believe them to be the three stages of awakening, however, nothing is further from the truth. What you see before is the first state of the Sharingan; three tomoe capable of extraordinary feats." Harry made his Sharingan spin wildly. "The second stage comes at a price no sane person should be willing to pay." At those words his Mangekyou started to form out of the blurred lines that were his three tomoe. "The Mangekyou Sharingan. The kaleidoscope. The eyes that will be your downfall." Harry knew that to use his Mangekyou again would damage his eyes severely, not even his own regenerative powers were capable of undoing the damage this quickly… but for revenge he would suffer. "You have faced these eyes before; can you remember the feeling of your head falling to the ground while your body slowly withered away?"

* * *

><p>AN: To get out of this writer's block I've uploaded a plot bunny of mine. Not sure how much time and effort I'll put into it but it might be a fun read. It's called <strong>A game we played<strong>. And yes I will shamelessly promote it here by pasting the first chapter (I've written two chapters, both have been uploaded) under this paragraph, have fun!

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><p>A game we played<p>

You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.

–Albert Einstein

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><p>Rule #1: No player is allowed to kill another player before conditions 6 to 9 are met, there is a 15 point difference between the players and the game-master has given a death-card.<br>- 'The rulebook' chapter 3: Rules and regulations (page 21)

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><p><strong>A game we played<strong>

The sun was high up in the sky; but then again it always was in the sand filled lands of the desert. The suns' relentless battering on the few parts of his skin -that weren't hidden by the shadow his hat cast on him, couldn't keep his organ of touch from feeling the chill that came with the message he would receive in just a few minutes.

Standing on the balcony of his office, holding the warm steel railings with both his hands he leaned forward to look down in the street. Beneath him three children were playing a game of ninja, a game that he had played when he was young as well. There was a girl dressed in bed sheets- obviously a kidnapped princess. There was a gruff looking pirate standing in front of her, his sword (made of two sticks, held together by a string) keeping her saviour and the hero of the game at bay . In his life there weren't a lot of moments to quietly just stand and watch, so the few times he could make time to simply watch; he did.

The life of a Kazekage was a busy one, a stressful one. Especially in these days. How, as a Kage he knew one thing for certain. One thing in the world was a constant: the world was always changing. In the past three weeks there had been two new Kages introduced to the game of ninja the big five played. Despite knowing that change was inevitable, change of this magnitude was important, it signalled something.

**_The king is dead; long live the king._**

It was an old saying, but one that still rang true; even to this day. A shrill scream interrupted him and his hand moved to his kunai holster. Looking down; where the scream had originated from, he saw the girl acting the part of the damsel in distress with fervour. Her hand was outstretched to reach the hero of their game. The brave shinobi though was stabbed by a stick and fell to the ground. The pirate bellowed; laughing in evil tones before the ninja threw a pebble at him. The pirate's eyes widened. He hadn't expected the ninja to endure, to keep on going after being struck. But the ninja had and the pirate fell to his knees, a monologue was starting, revealing the pirate's tragic past, explaining why he had to kidnap the princess. After the pirate let out his last breath the ninja walked over to the princess and 'saved' her.

'If only all mission were that simple. '

The Kazekage felt a presence; a familiar one, next to him one of his messengers kneeled before talking. "Kazekage-sama." The messenger – Touka his name was if he had remembered correctly- greeted him.

Meanwhile under the balcony, the pirate got up- in a game of ninja no one really died. The three children exchanged their relics. One of the boys took the bed sheets and became a prince that had been abducted from his castle. The girl became a strong; courageous Kunoichi and the last boy; the one who had been the saviour before became the kidnapper. The three started their game anew.

On the balcony- letting go of the railings, he turned and nodded. The messenger was now allowed to start his debriefing. "We received intelligence from our spies in Konoha. At 1530 yesterday." The ninja paused; the Kazekage already knew what he was going to tell. First there had been the village hidden in the stone, next was village hidden in the clouds and now it would be the village hidden in the lead; Konoha. "A new Hokage has taken control."

The information was not shocking; but it was troublesome. Why would the Sandaime Hokage choose this exact time to step down from his position. The man had been a strong constant after the Kyuubi incident which had resulted in the death of the Yondaime, the man had been the only reason why he, the Kazekage, had not decided to attack Konoha after the Uchiha massacre. Hiruzen Sarutobi is a Hokage strong, was a Hokage strong, smart and cunning enough to defend his village in times of chaos, make it prosper even. Why would he step down? Why would the other Kages step down? A chill took hold of his skin- what did they know that he didn't?

"You are dismissed." He said realizing Touka was still kneeling before him. With a nod the chuunin was gone.

Something in the world was changing- the old guard was stepping down- leaving the theatre, making place for new stars to rise. For new legends to be spun. But the Kazekage looked down, three children were playing ninja so it wasn't all that bad. He turned around and left the balcony; closing the doors behind him and started to work on his third pile of paperwork today.

Three children were playing ninja; so it couldn't be _all_ bad, could it?


	34. The frozen moon falls part 2

**The frozen moon falls part 2**

Black flames were everywhere he looked. Black tendrils of superheated chakra, the legendary black flames of Amaterasu. Jiraiya knew of them; had never seen them, but the tales and legends of these flames were known to all those who studied the creation of Konoha and the subsequent rise and fall of Uchiha Madara.

He was almost at the top of the mountain Orochimaru had created. He had to be careful; the black flames were everywhere and they consumed all they touched. The fact that a tiny Uchiha boy had created these flames, it spoke of a genius Jiraiya hadn't seen in a long time. "I will burn you a hundred times, and burn the smoldering remains a thousand times until nothing of you remains on this earth, Orochimaru."

A good fifteen meters before him stood the Uchiha boy, a hand covering his left eye while his right eye was bleeding. 'That jutsu- it must come at a price for it to strain him so much.' Meanwhile Orochimaru was set aflame, not that it held. In the five seconds Jiraiya had witnessed, Orochimaru had discarded his body twice- creating a new body that quickly emerged from his mouth. It was a technique Jiraiya had seen Orochimaru use before; but never had he needed to do it so often in such a short time span. It appeared that the boy's relentless attacks put his old teammate on the defensive.

Orochimaru jumped back as a black spark of Amaterasu nearly touched him. His eyes, however shortly, narrowed as he saw that Jiraiya was getting closer to the Uchiha boy. "You're doing a good job, Uchiha." Jiraiya complemented. The boy didn't verbally respond but the black flames seemed to double their ferocity in their pursuit of Orochimaru.

"He's quite something; isn't he-" Orochimaru caught aflame but, quicker than the flames consumed him, produced another body. "Can you imagine the amount of chaos I could sow with him as my vessel?" Orochimaru didn't miss a beat in his speech while his old body turned to dust.

"You won't ever get the chance." Jiraiya said before looking at the boy. "You can't keep this up forever; sooner or later you will run out of chakra."

The boy frowned but didn't respond; instead he kept looking at Orochimaru, unblinking, as if his gaze alone was enough to burn him to a crisp. "Orochimaru; how about we make a deal- you unsummon the two Hokage and I'll let you go. I have no desire to see to your death today." Jiraiya offered.

Before Orochimaru could respond the Uchiha boy laughed, a manic laugh, chilling to the bone, the black flames seemed to laugh as well, reaching higher into the sky. "Orochimaru must die today. He will die today- I will burn him over and over. Will burn his bones. I will burn his wickedness from this world."

"Kid it's not that easy."

"Isn't it beautiful, Jiraiya? He is turning blind- yet he keeps feeding chakra to these flames. The amount of bloodlust. It is like a bath after long days of work. Don't interfere with my toy, lest he burns you too." Orochimaru clasped his hands together creating a dome of earth around him- shielding him from the fire-jutsu.

Jiraiya shook his head. These two, they were entirely overcome by their sheer will to battle. "Kid, I'm warning you- you can't take him on. Impressive as you are, you are but a boy. Let me negotiate with him, so we can both walk away rather unharmed."

"No, no, no!" The boy stopped actively adding chakra to the flames, making the flames stop going for the snake-Sannin. "You don't understand just what that thing has done." He spat. The boy let his hands fall to his sides and opened his left eye. Now that Jiraiya could look at his eyes he could see the Mangekyou Sharingan. But while it was supposed to be black and red it had a dull grey sheen over it. Deep within the boy chakra was building up –how much chakra could such a tiny boy hold?

Around the Uchiha green chakra started to swirl, slowly revealing a skeletal spectre. The chakra construct around him was morphing faster than it was forming- by the time it had fully formed the bones had been padded by what looked like muscles. "Susanoo." The kid said before clutching his head and falling to his knees. Jiraiya shook his head. This boy was killing himself; Even though his attacks were powerful the Uchiha wouldn't be able actually harm his old teammate; at best the boy was an A-rank ninja. None of the Sannin would need to even break a sweat to stay alive against someone like that. There was potential, sure. But potential meant nothing until it was reached.

"I guess it can't be helped…" Jiraiya jumped back a good five meter, and placed his hand on the ground. Quickly lines of kanji started to form around him. "Fuuin; fire sealing method." The black flames that the Uchiha had created were sucked into the earth he had created the seal on. The kid looked at him, the horror of this betrayal etched on his face. "Sorry kid, but that fire isn't helping either of us at all."

"I had a plan. You need to stop interfering." The Uchiha boy said dangerously before a giant tree sprouted from the ground. It wrapped around Jiraiya and held him so tightly he couldn't move. "Stay there." He said.

The green Susanoo was a giant compared to the boy, it was an interesting jutsu. Though Jiraiya wasn't sure exactly what it could do. He assumed it acted as both an offensive and defensive jutsu. The chakra looked dense enough to block most attacks. It was a pretty straight forward jutsu that sacrificed mobility for sustainability and raw power. The only thing that made Jiraiya quirk his eyebrow was the thin rod the jutsu lazily held in one of his hands. It was pointing at the shield Orochimaru had created when it released a green light that pierced through the stone shield. However, inside of the defensive structure was nothing.

"That's why you shouldn't have sealed my flames." The Uchiha barked at him. "He wouldn't have been able to escape…"

"I see, so you weren't quite that consumed by your hatred for him, you didn't make mistakes, you created openings on purpose. To drive Orochimaru into a corner… How clever. Let me go, I'll find him for you and unseal these flames."

"Don't bother unsealing the flames, I have another strategy. My final stand against his monstrosity. I don't need your help." The Uchiha snarled, as if his patience had run out.

"One problem, kid. Those Edo Tensei; they'll keep on rampaging as long as he doesn't call them off."

"I know, but that's not my problem. I'm sure you can seal them away. You are a master in the art of sealing, act like it."

The tree that held him suddenly let go. Jiraiya couldn't just leave the boy alone to fight his old teammate without any assistence... 'this is the least I should do' slapping his hands together Jiraiya created a barrier around himself. "Detection Barrier." Within a second he had located Orochimaru. He turned around, his arm stretching out while a Rasengan formed in his palm. The Spiraling sphere of chakra made contact with Orochimaru. Taking advantage of his momentum Jiraiya flashed through a set of hand seals making his hair lengthen and wrap around Orochimaru. "Hiding your chakra won't be enough to pass me by unnoticed. Now I need to take care of two zombies." Jiraiya had to stop talking to evade a green shot of chakra that only missed him by a hair.

The beam of chakra rushed by Jiraiya and had almost reached Orochimaru when he seemed to liquefy, turning into mud and disappearing from sight. 'that was close... too close. But i can leave now.' Jiraiya jumped off the heightened plateau they were currently on and made his way to the two kages.

* * *

><p>Orochimaru was still very much in the fight, Harry knew, even though he was nowhere to be seen. The fiery rage he had felt earlier, accompanied by the rush of adrenaline, was starting to fade.<p>

Underneath his feet the earth started to tremble, warning him of an incoming attack. Harry knew that evading it would only prolong the battle; and in a battle of endurance he had nothing on the Sannin. In the second it took for a hundred snakes to burst out of the ground Harry had deactivated his Susanoo, he needed to conserve his chakra. The battle had already been decided.

Raising his arms up the snakes coiled around him holding in him place. Orochimaru's summons slithered and hissed in excitement. "Don't look so surprised, Orochimaru." Harry said, his voice soft but strong. "I can't keep this up, you are stronger than I am, there is no denying that."

"Ku ku ku, what brings about this change, little Uchiha?" Orochimaru asked, slowly rising out of the hole his snakes had created.

"Because sometimes" he started, a chuckle escaping him causing Orochimaru's eyebrows to raise "You have to do what's right over what is easy…" with those words his right Sharingan faded away revealing dulled eyes.

Orochimaru laughed, not a sinister chuckle; not a sarcastic outburst but an honest to god, good old-fashioned belly grabbing laugh. The insanity of it all made Harry laugh along with him, the nervousness for what was about to happen releasing before he calmed down again. "I used to be called Master of Death… I had to balance the world on the tip of my wand. It seems this world is no different; I accepted that not too long ago. But only now do I realize what that means, what it demands of me. Just what kind of power comes with that realization? The power of sacrifice. I will forfeit that which you want so badly to give me what I need so desperately."

Orochimaru's face was so close to Harry's he could feel the man's warm breath touching his skin. "You're making no sense; but it matters little to me now. You've given up, that means you won't fight me when I take over your body." The Sannin stated smugly.

"Just release the Edo tensei afterwards." Harry said; his other Sharingan also fading into dull green. "Leave the townspeople alone and don't attack Konoha. That's all I ask in return."

And then it happened. The very thing Orochimaru had waited for longer than some ninja lived, he took over the Uchiha's body.

And all went black.

For both of them.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong>YES I did it. This arc is officially done with. OVER. And it only took me a year or something... God it has felt like forever. Next few chapters will be the aftermath of what has transpired up till now.

So expect a lot of Naruto and Sasuke.

P.S. sorry it took me so long before posting SUCH a short chapter.


	35. two brothers

**Chapter 34: Two brothers**

"Back already, brother?" Death heard someone say. "Your visits to my realm have become more frequent…"

Death took his time to answer, it was so cold without his cloak in his brother's realm he shivered. "Yes brother." Death didn't move from the thin window he had torn between his brother's realm and his own. He kept looking at what had drawn him to watch this event; his Master.

"Still going for the all-black attire I see." His brother said in disdain.

"Yes brother." Death answered. "I've always seen it befitting of my role. The angry mask, prayer beads and white sheets you seem to prefer… Remind me too much of father." Death shuddered, his Master had just unlocked the first of three Deathly Hallows of this realm; which he voiced to his brother.

"He is nothing special." His brother stated. "Hundreds of humans have claimed the first Deathly Hallows." His brother moved in front of him; blocking his view, the purple mask radiated with anger and was close to his own face. "I am not as careless as you were when you designed your hallows. No human is capable of the selflessness needed to Master mine."

Death pushed his brother to the side, his old Master was lying on the ground and had just mastered his fourth Deathly Hallow. His brother, he had to admit, had crafted three ingenious Deathly Hallows. While he had preferred three straightforward items his brother had created three jutsu. "Father didn't send him to your realm without reason, brother."

"What are you insinuating?"

"I've never seen a more self-sacrificing human being; and I've seen a lot of humans." Death saw a man picking up the frail body of his Master, throwing him over his shoulder and walk away. Death closed the tear between realms. "Father is testing him."

Death's brother sighed. "Yes, the current events transpiring in my realm have his fingerprints all over it."

With the tear between the dimensions closed, darkness surrounded the two beings. "I didn't notice it at first in my own realm; but father has been meddling in my Masters affairs for many lives now, I think it's almost time."

"You think that boy is the next….?" Death didn't have to finish his sentence as they both knew the answer. Their father didn't just interfere without a good reason.

"I am afraid so. My poor, poor Master."

* * *

><p>Today was the day; he had awoken from his deep slumber at exactly the crack of dawn. For the first ray of light always reached his window. He had eaten his morning ramen, had put on his nice sandals; the blue ones without the obvious signs of usage. He had remembered to shower, brushed his teeth and even washed his jumpsuit. For today was the glorious day Uzumaki Naruto would become a genin!<p>

On the other side of Konoha, a barren place called the Uchiha District another boy also prepared himself for his own day of glory. He had woken up shortly before dawn, had spent his first hour going through the tai-jutsu training. Had taken a shower while brushing his teeth; after all there was no one to tell him he couldn't. After drying himself off he had eaten the breakfast of champions, pancakes. They were leftovers from the day before and thus tasted twice as good. Yes today had started perfectly and there was nothing that could stop him from becoming a genin today.

The two boys met with each other by the river. "You nervous?" Sasuke asked, his hands quickly looking for cover in his pants.

"Hell no! I'm going to become genin today, nothing can stop me; not even gramps." Naruto jumped onto the river and started to walk. He hadn't set two steps or Sasuke had joined him.

"Me neither."

"So… are you going to try and break Harry's score?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "No… I don't have the Sharingan, yet, so I don't know as many jutsu."

"Huh… why not? Aren't you an Uchiha?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke stopped moving and just stood still in the middle of the river, they were almost halfway to the academy by now. Sasuke looked down, his frowns burrowed deep almost forming one line above his eyes. "Harry…"

Naruto had stopped moving as well now, standing just a few steps away from Sasuke. To him it was strange to see this demeanour coming over Sasuke; since when did his friend look so… troubled? Sasuke started to explain but Naruto interrupted him. "Race you to the academy!"

Sasuke smiled and ran as fast as he could. Of course Naruto stood no chance.

* * *

><p>It had been a long day, well, more like a long morning because by the time the sun was at its highest and the shadows seemed non-existent Sasuke had earned his forehead protector. And so he stood outside, alone.<p>

Waiting.

Hadn't Harry promised to be back by now? Where was he? All the others had their family to celebrate their advancements into the shinobi ranks. For a moment, Sasuke felt bitter. Felt like lashing out. It just wasn't fair. However before he could mill it over in his head again Naruto jumped through the classroom window shouting.

"I'm a ninja!"

Sasuke shook his head. He would never admit it, not aloud but Naruto had become part of his family as well. 'Guess I'm not all alone after all.'

"Sasuke, let's celebrate with ramen!" Naruto said when he landed beside him. His forehead protector was fastened proudly on his forehead. It suited him.

"Don't be stupid." Sasuke's lips widened forming a small smile. "Now is no time to celebrate; we should prepare for our first mission. Let's work on accuracy and dodging. You'll dodge."

Naruto gulped when Sasuke's hand reached for his kunai pouch. "Maa, Sasuke… You're on!" and he was gone, running towards their training spot. The Uchiha compound.

* * *

><p>Sasuke was lying on his back, his shirt was torn up and there wasn't an inch that was not covered in dirt. His pants however still looked rather whole, there was only one tear on his side which had been created by a shuriken that had tried to attach him to the wall he had been hiding behind. The one who had thrown that shuriken though had regretted it almost immediately. For Naruto had been on the receiving end of a thrown fuuma shuriken.<p>

Sasuke looked beside him. Naruto was also on his back. His chest going up and down repeatedly by his heavy breathing. They had trained for hours, skipped lunch and dinner and now they were both too tired to get up despite the darkened clouds forming above them.

"It's going to rain soon, Blondie. Better get inside." Sasuke said trying to push himself up.

"Tomorrow… we're going to meet our Jounin, right?" Naruto asked between two breaths.

Sasuke managed to stand up and reached out for Naruto to help him. "Yes, I wonder who it will be." Naruto grabbed his hand, thankful for the help he was given. "We should eat something, it would be dumb to retire to bed without proper nutrition."

"Instant miso ramen it is then!" Naruto laughed. " But yeah. Tomorrow is going to be tough. Real training under a Jounin!"

"Stupid… instant ramen is not healthy or balanced enough. I'll fix us something."

By the time both boys sat down to start eating their dinner Sasuke was theorising about the teams they would be put in. "Being an Uchiha, they'll either put me in an intelligence gathering team or infiltrating team. I believe Harry is in one of those as well."

"Meh, that sounds boring." Naruto said, spewing rice out of his mouth. "I'd wanne be put in a team that gets to fight the bad guys."

Sasuke snorted. "As if. We're just genin; the only people we'll be fighting are civilian thugs- if even that." Sasuke grabbed one of the slices of cucumber. "You know, it isn't even certain we will be put on the same team.."

Naruto looked up at this. "No! We, like, we have to be on the same team."

"Well, there is at least one certainty; Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji. They will be put together. Harry told me their fathers used to be a team almost as famous as the three Sannin and considering the council loves repeating what worked I'm almost certain they'll be the first team." Sasuke took the last bite of his slice of cucumber. "Besides, there's nothing we can do about it. The Hokage gets the final say in these things."

"You mean the old man?" Naruto grinned. "We're definitely are gonna be on a team then! He knows we're friends!"

"Perhaps…"

* * *

><p>The next day started the same as any other, it was weird how even though his life had changed so fundamentally that the world hadn't changed at all. It made him feel almost as if it didn't matter. But before that feeling could take hold excitement started to brew within him. Today Iruka sensei was going to announce the genin teams and Sasuke was going to make sure he would be there on time.<p>

So after his daily morning routine he walked to the academy that had only one thing left to teach him, who made up his team.

It took some time, but the class had eventually filled up; everyone that had passed had gathered. Some were nervous, some were not. Sasuke belonged to the latter. He was not nervous; no matter who was in his team, or who lead it, he would soar to unknown heights. He had to, he wouldn't be the only brother not to become strong, he couldn't, wouldn't, fall behind.

His cold demeanour had kept anyone from sitting next to him, that was until Naruto loudly greeted him and sat next to him. Sasuke tuned him out when he started to talk to him; his mind was elsewhere.

"Please, everyone. Seat yourselves." Their teacher said. All genin quieted down and Sasuke couldn't help but be enthralled by his voice. It was the first time Iruka-sensei had captivated him this much. "I will announce the teams and their Jounin-sensei's."

Sasuke couldn't help but scowl, Iruka-sensei had still not called his name. Nor had he called out Naruto, so there was still the chance of them being on the same team. "Now for team seven." The teacher started. "Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke."

Beside him Naruto stood up and started to cheer. Iruka didn't look impressed and just quirked his eyebrow. Eventually Naruto calmed down and sat. "As I was saying, team seven… your Jounin-sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."

Sasuke blinked. Once, twice. 'Hatake Kakashi?'

"Hatake Kakashi?" he asked.

"Yes, Hatake Kakashi. Now for team eight…" Sasuke tuned him out, the other teams didn't matter. Sasuke looked at Naruto and smiled; it was nice to be on a team with Naruto. Then he looked past him and focused on the pink haired girl, Sakura.

He hadn't really bothered thinking about her before. She wasn't anything special… At least she hadn't shown anything beyond what the other girls in class did. Her taijutsu was passable, she was smart but her scores weren't higher than his. He didn't know what her ambition was, what had made want to become a shinobi? He knew Naruto, in and out; but he knew almost nothing about Sakura.

After most teams had been gathered by their Jounin-sensei Sasuke's Jounin-sensei showed up. Sasuke already knew the man, the Cyclops, the one-eyed man, the Jounin that had taught his brother.

The pervert.

"Haruno, Uchiha, Uzumaki; with me." The Jounin announced.

The three of them followed their Jounin-sensei. None of them speaking, wondering what the man had in store for them. When they left the academy he looked back at them. "So my cute little ducklings, this is what's gonna happen. We will meet tomorrow at training ground seven, you will be tested. I expect great things from you; after all… Someone like me is not going to train those who are weak. Prepare to fight, prepare for hell. For tomorrow your real genin exam will begin; be there at seven am sharp." Having said that, he vanished.

* * *

><p>Before him three children laid on the ground in various states of consciousness. They hadn't managed to get any of his bells; but he hadn't expected them to. But they showed potential. Potential he could work with. "You three pass." They had worked together, had shown trust in each other. Though it was painfully obvious that Haruno was the third wheel on this team.<p>

They had potential but they were a far cry from Rin's team. Haruno wasn't serious enough, Uzumaki was too scatterbrained and the Uchiha too eager to show off.

The three genin looked at each other and the pink haired girl spoke up first. "But none of us got the bells…"

Perhaps that was their biggest weakness, they couldn't see through deception, didn't see underneath the underneath. "We weren't supposed to. Three newly graduate genin versus a Jounin? This task was made for failure." The Uchiha explained. Or maybe he underestimated them?

"Then what was the goal?" The blonde boy asked. Neither of his teammates answered, the Uchiha looked pensive and the civilian girl just looked at him for answers.

Perhaps not.

Kakashi decided to answer for them. "Shinobi can do things normal civilians can't, I will teach you to walk on water, shatter mountains and kill a target with your hands tied together on your back." The three genin looked at him in awe. He could hear the Uzumaki mutter 'awesome' under his breath. "But you will never reach the pinnacle of being a shinobi on your own. You would die on your first mission without a team. That is why I test my potential genin not on strength nor on cunning; but on teamwork."

Kakashi looked at the three genin intensely, hoping the message would stick with them. "The three of you… Are my students now. And I will make you a formidable team. I will require hard work, I will require all your time." Now he stared at Sakura, the only girl on this training ground. "That is, if you want to become a true shinobi. If you thought you trained hard, or spend effort on getting better to become a genin you a sorely mistaken. Becoming a genin was easy. Becoming good enough to stay on this team will demand your full devotion not only to your own training" he saw Sasuke narrow his eyes, "but also to become a strong team."

Kakashi didn't have to wait long before the three genin stopped looking at each other and nodded. Naruto stood up and gave him the widest grin he had ever seen. "We will become a team worth being proud off! 'Cause I'll become a someone who can protect his friends! Believe it."

Kakashi stifled a laugh. "The three of you should go home, we'll gather on this training ground each morning at seven am sharp. If you're late or don't show up…" Kakashi paused, instilling a healthy amount of fear in his students for the consequence of not showing up on time. "Just be on time."

Having said that he shunshined away. He had a Hokage to report to, not that what he had to report would be quite as important as what the Hokage had to tell him. But Kakashi had no way of knowing that.

* * *

><p>Sakura's body ached all over. Her new sensei had accepted her and her teammates as his students but had put them through the most intense three hours of her live. She had held her kunai so tightly that her fingers now protested when she wanted to let go of it.<p>

The two boys in her team, the dreamy Sasuke and idiotic Naruto had already left. She however was still at the training ground. She knew she was the weakest of the three. It had been blatantly clear throughout the entire morning. She had always known that Sasuke was top of their class, best at every subject. But she had always thought she wasn't that far behind. But seeing him spewing fire, throwing kunai and flash through handseals as if it was nothing… she felt subpar.

But she could've coped with that if her other teammate, the one she had always seen as the weakling, the idiot class clown and the one who messed everything up, hadn't been so much stronger than her as well.

The truth was, she should have failed this test. She had no desire to work together, she wanted the bell for herself... But seeing the two boys go at the Jounin like they had, working together like a well-oiled machine. She was sure that they deserved to become genin instead of her. And so she had sacrificed herself to give the two of them a chance; they were so far ahead of her that she would need the extra year in the academy to catch up.

But then, in the end; the Jounin had passed her too. Sakura knew she was smart; smarter than most people. Smarter than she had shown herself to be at the academy. Ninja were born to die, trained to die for the mission. Every ninja, safe for the legends, died before advancing to old age. And in her team she would be the weakest. The sacrificial lamb, the distraction that would walk in front to take the first hit... Inside Sakura felt angry; her sensei had passed her so the two boys would survive a bit longer! But angry as she was she couldn't fault the Jounin. He was a ninja, a legend among ninja even.

"I won't be just a distraction. I want to die of old age, not of kunai." She said to herself. She looked down at herself, her hand clenching her own kunai tightly; her dress all torn up and her hair dangling in front of her face. 'I look pathetic' what was she thinking? If she didn't want to die… If she wanted to become a legend herself, she had to let go of her childhood. Let go of certain wishes and solely focus on staying alive and come out on top in every skirmish, every battle. She let the kunai fall out of her hand onto the ground. And with it let the girl she had been laying there, while the genin she now was walked away, head held high.

She was going to shop.

* * *

><p>The next day at seven am sharp Sakura walked onto the training field that her Jounin-sensei had reserved. She was the last one to arrive, instantly Naruto looked at her "I told you she would come!" he said as if winning a bet.<p>

"Hn." Was all that Sasuke grunted. Though he did eye her a bit longer than he usually did, meaning he actually took notice of her.

"Good morning." Sakura greeted her teammates cheerfully. On the inside though she was already fuming. 'They don't even notice the changes…'

Sakura sat down, the new attire she had made felt odd, but she'd adjust to it soon enough. The training ground was empty. 'where was their sensei?' she was about to relax a little when, out of seemingly nowhere, three kunai embedded themselves in the tree she was leaning against. Sakura shot upright, taking one of the kunai out of the tree to defend herself with. 'What's going on?' She looked at her teammates, both boys had been shocked by the unannounced attack as well.

Naruto was at her left; his legs spread so he could move to any side to dodge, crouched enough to be able to jump into the branches of the tree, he looked like a proper genin, trained for battle. A bit further to her left was Sasuke, the same stance as Naruto, but his eyes were sharper, locked onto a certain point; he had eight shuriken in-between his fingers, ready to throw the ninja stars to deflect or attack.

"A reaction time of two and a half seconds… Too slow." Her sensei suddenly stood between her, Sasuke and Naruto. His presence was almost suffocating, indicating he was so much more than he had let them believe the day previous.

"Yes, sensei." Sakura said, all defensive retorts died before they formed by the suffocating presence, two and a half seconds too slow… meant he wanted them to react even before he threw the pieces of metal. Her teammates answered something as well but it was hard to concentrate on anything other than her teacher.

Kakashi, who had previously looked at the boys now moved his head so his one-visible-eye drilled into her. "The three of you are unfit for duty, not even D-ranked missions. Yesterday I decided to train you, to make you stronger. Not because you are strong now, but because I've seen a potential in the three of you together. I will grant you the opportunity to shed your mediocrity like a dog sheds his winter coat. But; I will need the three of you to act together."

Sakura swallowed the saliva that had gathered on her tongue before she choked on it. Those three kunai, he hadn't even aimed at her, hadn't tried to kill them; but he could've done it so easily. Before her mental eye she saw him slit her throat a hundred times. 'Is this the killing-intent of a Jounin?' Sakura shivered, everything she had thought she knew, it was all useless. Her hours spend reading books about how to fight meant nothing if she couldn't even move or think properly.

"So the next time you're on this training field and I haven't arrived yet… You don't just sit down and relax, you practice together; you sharpen your minds, your bodies together." Having said that he told his students to line up and do a warming up.

Sakura started to stretch. When two hand grabbed her. "Your posture is wrong, when you stretch you need to give your lungs space to breath; it is important for your muscles to get as much oxygen in them while stretching, you don't want to get sour muscles before you even start to work out." Sakura nodded and flustered, she couldn't even stretch properly… Why hadn't she been taught this at the academy?

The Jounin wasn't gentle with her or her teammates if their stances were wrong, if they didn't stretch out far enough or overstretched he would be on them that very instance. 'A solid foundation is more important than anything.' He had repeated time after time.

Next to her Sasuke glared daggers at their sensei, the Jounin had pushed the boy to the ground with his pinky. "You need to find a better balance, spread your legs further apart and keep your abs pulled together so your core is compact and right in the middle." Even though his eyes betrayed hurt pride, Sasuke followed the instructions.

Thirty minutes later Sakura was about to question their Jounin's sanity when he started to throw kunai at them while stretching, telling them not to flinch and lose balance. When Sakura did just that she fell flat on her face. "Just because you've decided to take this seriously doesn't mean you're suddenly good at this. Get up and continue stretching or go home."

Sakura wanted to cry, but held her tears back. He was right, what did she think? That just because she had donned a new outfit and braided her hair that she suddenly could do this? Kakashi's words almost shattered the weak girl she was, but she had already left that girl behind.

She was genin now.

"I won't give up that easily!" she said. No way in hell was she going to give up; she wasn't the weak little Sakura that was ashamed of herself. She had climbed the ranks during her time in the academy; she had showed all those basic bitches just what she was made of. No-one dared to talk her down. And just because this Jounin hadn't seen all the hard work she had already put into becoming a fierce Kunoichi didn't mean she couldn't prove her worth once more.

She stood up and, in a manner she would've scoffed at just the day before, let the dirt stains on her face and clothing remain untouched and continued stretching. She didn't flinch after that, even when kunai were switched with fuuma shuriken.

When the last of the Fuuma shuriken was thrown Kakashi told them to start running. It was only five hours later that he gave them permission to stop.

Later that day, when evening had come and Sakura sat the kitchen table eating the rice and vegetables her mother had prepared, she couldn't even muster the energy to appreciate the tasty dish. She was tired.

* * *

><p><span>-The day before-<span>

Kakashi had just finished reporting to the Hokage that he would start to train the newly appointed team 7. "Good. They will need your guidance." The Hokage said motioning for Kakashi to sit.

Kakashi did just that 'Was there anything else that they had to discuss?'

"Earlier today I received a missive from Jiraiya." The Hokage started. "You see, I had him investigate something that your previous genin squad, and you, had informed me off."

Kakashi nodded, sending in one of the Sannin to investigate anything was reason enough for Kakashi to start worrying. The Hokage's face didn't betray anything but Kakashi started to fear the words that would come. "Before Jiraiya arrived at the town of Kuwain there had been a massacre. Dozens of genin, chuunin and even some Jounin had been killed." The Hokage unsealed a scroll and started to read aloud.

"When I arrived at the mountain, I found widespread ruin, traces of a battle were evident. Chakra filled the air and bodies the ground. I was too late to witness the slaughter that had taken place but I sensed some serious chakra being thrown around not much further from where I was. It was there that I found Orochimaru toying with a Konoha shinobi. We fought a long battle, he had summoned the dead and the Konoha shinobi had been unconscious for a while. When the boy woke up he started to fight Orochimaru while I worked on sealing the undead First and Second Hokage that Orochimaru had summoned. When the Edo Tensei vanished I suspected the boy to have somehow won..."

The Hokage looked up from the scroll and sighed. And Kakashi felt dread knotting his stomach.

"However all I found when I returned was the shell of a body Orochimaru had used as what I presume was a container for his soul. It is as we feared, Orochimaru has finished his immortality jutsu."

Kakashi swallowed the bile that wanted to rise up and steeled himself. "Yuugi, Haru and Koh?" was all he could ask.

"We haven't found their bodies… yet."

Kakashi felt himself crumble. "How could this happen?"

"Team twelve uncovered what seemed to be a covert operation run by a village named 'Hidden in the Sound'. They went outside of their mission parameters, they didn't represent Konoha." The Hokage sighed." Which is why whatever happened there will never become public knowledge. Or explained to anyone. The only reason you are hearing this is because we need you to be focused."

Kakashi picked himself up; if the bodies hadn't been found, they might've survived…

"I've already sent a team to cover up what happened and salvage what can be salvaged. Kakashi, it is of the utmost importance that this doesn't become known. Thus I'm sealing this report, Until we have the bodies of former genin team twelve no one will be informed." The Hokage leaned back into his chair. "Understand that it falls unto you now to protect the last Uchiha. Konoha needs you to be strong, needs your new team to be strong. Your long-term mission will be to prepare your team for the Chuunin exams that will be hosted in six months."

* * *

><p>It had been a full week since Sakura had become genin. And it hadn't been at all as what she had expected it to be. She had expected to go out on missions, to train a few times every week and earn herself some money for some nice clothing.<p>

Reality was really different. Her Jounin-sensei kept her training entire days, every day. Speed, endurance, dodging, breaking genjutsu, hand seals while running, hand seals while dodging. All day everyday going through those handseals!

She was on a team but she hardly had time to be social with her teammates even though she saw them twelve hours a day. "So; today my little ducklings, your easy week ends." Sakura gulped. And beside her she felt her two boys –'when did she start to think of them as such?' – stiffen.

'This had been the easy week? We haven't even done a mission yet, all we did was train…' Kakashi must have read the question on her face. For he got eerily close to her. "This week has been to prepare you for training with chakra."

Her Jounin-sensei reached for three scrolls he had strapped to his leg. "In each of these scrolls is an exercise specifically designed for your chakra and body. We will continue your stamina, strength and flexibility training while you train on using chakra during physical activity." Throwing the three scrolls into their hands Kakashi started to go into what she called 'lecture-mode'.

"In the academy you have learned to call forth your chakra while in a meditative state. You three have all succeeded in doing so, and have taken the next step as well, using chakra while moving." Kakashi started to run circles around them. "Using chakra while moving is easy; however, focusing chakra for a jutsu becomes more difficult once you are already using chakra to heighten your bodies' performance."

Following the Jounin with her eyes had become futile, all he was now was a blur. He was using chakra to make his movements faster. "In each scroll is a jutsu that will enhance your bodily functions." He had stopped running and was standing in front of them once again, this time rushing through handseals.

"At the end of this week, you will participate in a hiking race. Your mission will be to win by cheating, using chakra. Without the organizers catching you." Kakashi stopped making handseals and out of the ground a small mountain erected itself. "You will use this training field to practice. I expect the three of you to win, to work together, prepare together, if you do we will advance to the next training; combat."

Naruto grinned. "Sure thing Kakashi-sensei!"

"What if we don't win?" Sakura asked, dreading the answer.

"That is not an option." The Jounin said, while the world around her turned colder. "It is a mission, and my team doesn't fail missions, not if they work together." With that he left the training ground.

* * *

><p>Hiruzen Sarutobi was sitting behind his desk and frowned, looking at his crystal ball he could oversee the entire village. With a heavy heart he focussed some chakra and searched for one of the rookie genin teams.<p>

The village, no _he_ had placed a lot of faith in this specific team. Konoha had always done well in the Chuunin exams, but the last few years Kumo and Iwa had been showing Konoha up. In six months he would host the chuunin exams himself and being shown up wouldn't be acceptable.

Not when there were so many promising children newly promoted to genin.

A while back, during the council of elders, they had come to the conclusion that the genin that would come out of this year's academy class would be trained specifically to stomp the competition during the chuunin exams. Konoha needed more funds; especially if what Danzo had foretold would come to pass.

The political climate between the great five had taken a turn for the worse. "There are whispers of a war coming." Danzo had stated, and knowing his old friend, the rumours he caught up on, were more than often truths.

"If a war is coming…" Hiruzen sighed. "If a war is coming these children will need to be prepared. The genin will have six months before the chuunin exams. We will invite all the Kages and with a show of power both in the exam and out of it make sure Konoha will not be the one targeted."

During the 'council of elders' they had made big plans. Plans that stretched further into the future than he had been strictly comfortable with. "Konoha needs to stand stall if the others fall into war." Koharu added. "Konoha will stand tall. I will train one of the genin teams myself. I read that there is a new team coming with a Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi?"

"I actually wanted Asuma to become their sensei." He had mused aloud. "It would do him good."

"I am sure you can arrange for another team for him, Let's continue tradition. I trained their fathers after all." She had taken out the hairpin and twirled it before stabbing it in the table. "With our oaths to each other; I am not needed in the Hokage tower. I have a few more years of fight in me, and there is a lot I can teach them. Let me train those three and I will have them become legends outshining their fathers."

Of course he had agreed, it wasn't often that Koharu showed any kind of enthusiasm since the Kyuubi attack. To see her that strong-willed… how could he not?

But knowing that team nine was in good hands, he looked through his crystal ball at team seven. Kakashi had been their Jounin sensei for over a month now and the results were already showing. They moved in unison, Kakashi was throwing fuuma shuriken around like candy but the three were dodging as if they never had done anything else.

'So he has worked on their agility' Hiruzen was satisfied with their progress. They were only genin after all. Being able to dodge in the way they were was not exceptional but it was impressive. The crystal ball showed him the Uchiha, Sasuke, he wasn't just dodging… "Oh, this is interesting." The raven-haired boy was using steel wire to trap Kakashi, confine him to one place.

His teammates apparently knew what he had planned for when he started his jutsu they jumped back. From the boys hands chakra started to spark. "A lightning based jutsu in combination with ninja wire… What have you been teaching these kids Kakashi?"

Hiruzen missed what happened next as someone slammed his door open. And eyes, with barely restraint fury, locked onto him.

"Sensei. You ordered my presence."

* * *

><p>Sasuke was at home, on the ground a good one hundred meters of steel wire was laying at his feet. Kakashi-sensei had given him three cable reels after he had seen how good Sasuke had been with ninja wire. He had to admit that his first opinion of the man had been skewed wrongly. The man was a pervert; of that was no doubt. But he was also briliant. In just a month he had gotten himself, naruto and Sakura to become so much stronger. They had become a team.<p>

It was nice to have a team. Sasuke shook his head, now was not the time to let his mind wander.

Two of the cable reels were attached to his forearm protectors and had been hidden underneath the cloth he used to cover it up. The third cable reel was sealed inside a scroll. The thing was too big to hold on his person, it held a good ten kilometre of the ninja wire and was to be used to make sure his supply of the wire didn't run out between fights and missions.

After tightly winding the ninja wire on his left arm's spool Sasuke went outside. They had been given a free day to relax and work on their projects. In Sasuke's case, moving the ninja wire with chakra.

So there he stood in the middle of the pond in his backyard. His arms stretched out and ninja wire started to shoot out of his forearm protectors. It didn't take much chakra to make it shoot out in a straight line, but the chakra conductive steel didn't like to bend.

He held his breath in concentration and willed his chakra to bend the steel wire so that it would come back to him and create a loop. He had seen Kakashi use this manoeuvre to bind Naruto with his ninja wire. It should be possible. But for the third time that day he failed. "Hn."

'Why won't it work? What am I doing wrong?' Sasuke pressed on the wind-up buttons to retract the ninja wire.

Sasuke liked the idea of using ninja wire as his main weapon. Both of his brothers had used jutsu as their main weapons. Genjutsu for Itachi and elemental jutsu for Haru. He didn't want to follow in their footsteps, in their shadows.

He would be different; prove his own worth, carry his own weight. And so Sasuke's mind wandered off once more.

* * *

><p>Naruto was at training ground seven, three Kage bunshin were in front of him. "Okay you three, let's start!" Naruto ducked the instant the first kunai was thrown.<p>

He had been working hard these past weeks. He was getting stronger. Though it hadn't been what he had expected it to be. Being a ninja to him had always meant using big jutsu like the fireballs Sasuke threw around. But Kakashi-sensei, his crazy-murderous-demon-sensei, had shown him something that had rocked his world.

The three bunshin closed in on him. The first bunshin tried to hit him but Naruto had been prepared. He focussed and waited for the fist to come within his range. With a flare of chakra the scroll he had on his back unrolled and stopped the bunshin in his tracks. It took a lot of effort to strengthen the paper to take a hit like that but it was amazing.

Well, not as amazing what happened next. "Fuuïn kai: Buka!"

The scroll glowed before ink started to spread out within the blink of an eye. And the clone was obliterated by an explosion. However, the clone wasn't the only one affected.

The blast threw Naruto off balance and pushed him back. "Damn."

Meanwhile the other two clones, in the confusion of the first confrontation, had gotten close to Naruto and both punched their maker in the face. "Ouch, Dammit!" In retaliation Naruto cancelled his shadow clones. 'Hah! Served them right.'

"Dammit, Kakashi-sensei had made it look so easy…" Naruto clenched his fists. 'The explosion shouldn't backfire on me like that… I need to make the paper stronger…"

* * *

><p>Kakashi was at the memorial stone, a place where he had been a lot the last few weeks. "I'm sorry Rin, there is still nothing the Hokage knows about them… I told Sasuke though. He deserved at least that much from me."<p>

The stone didn't answer, it never did.

"He took it in stride, as if he knew something… He took it better than I did. You would've been proud of them though. When I spoke to Jiraiya-sama last week he said that it was obvious that they had fought like true shinobi. Apparently there had been civilian survivors, actually they had saved them." Kakashi placed a white flower he had brought with him on the ground.

"I'm sorry I couldn't uphold my promise to you." He sighed. "But I've been given another chance; Team seven." The 'I won't fail them as well' struggled to not slip out.

* * *

><p>Sakura let out a scream, sweat made her clothes stick to her body and her chakra was nearly depleted.<p>

"You'll be good at genjutsu he says." She jumped sideways, evading another rock thrown at her.

"It will come easy to you, he says." Using a kunai she blocked a pair of shuriken that had gotten eerily close to her. She ducked as a fuuma shuriken whistled past her. That would've been the end of the training session if she hadn't seen it coming. "Damn you, Kakashi-sensei!"

The clone of said sensei just raised his shoulders. And threw another pair of sharp-edged metals. Sakura huffed, she'd done this a thousand times today. Using a the last bits of her chakra she coated her hands in it and grabbed the fuuma shuriken as they passed her by and flung them back at her teacher.

Kakashi batted the weapons away as if they were flies. "Well done Sakura. Now tell me; why are you doing this exercise?"

Sakura collected herself and stood upright. "Because the road to become a genjutsu specialist is a dangerous one."

Kakashi levelled her a look, prompting her to continue. "Genjutsu-trainee's usually succumb to weapon-users and that is why I need to train in countering weapons until I'm mistaken for a weapon-mistress myself…"

"If you are serious about becoming proficient at genjutsu, everything about you needs to fool your opponents into thinking you are not. The best genjutsu users are those who weave their genjutsu so well that by the time someone notices they are trapped they're already done for." Kakashi petted Sakura on her head. "And the deception starts before you even enter the battle. Now go home and rest. Tomorrow we'll continue."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> So time seems to fly by. The Hokage seems to be preparing for something big, holding his cards close. We have no clue what happened back in Kuwain. Sakura is taking her career more seriously. Kakashi seems to take his worries about Harry's team and turned them in a motivation of sorts.

I decided not to go too deep into what Naruto and Sasuke are feeling or doing, at least not yet. Was this chapter okay? I feel insecure about it, because not a lot happens; yet a lot of time seems to have passed. Well I'll see in the reviews.

**/SOMEWHAT SPOILERS /**

Decided to go with a different route than I had previously planned for. In my original draft of this chapter we would hear that Jiraiya found Harry unconscious and he seemed to be comatose after a week's travel back to Konoha. But I decided against it, because it slowed the plot down and I wanted to speed it up. So next chapter should reveal what happened to Harry; though it will be somewhat confusing…


	36. Two brothers part 2

**Two brothers part 2**

There was pain.

And nothing else had room to be.

* * *

><p>There was pain.<p>

And nothing else had room to be.

* * *

><p>There was pain, and anguish.<p>

* * *

><p>An eternity of pain, anguish and familiarity. He had been through this before?<p>

He had been through this before!

* * *

><p>"Crucio!" They said.<p>

And _he_ was in a world of pain. Everything was hurting. There was no sense of self, he was pain personified.

When he was Harry again, for the shortest time, cruel laughing was abound. They thought they had won.

They were wrong.

"Crucio!"

-twelve-

They were with twelve and he was alone.

"Crucio!" A shrill voice yelled.

"Crucio!" A deep voice murmured.

"Crucio, Crucio, Crucio, CRUCIO."

They were twelve and he was one.

"They are twelve, but WE are one." He heard between the curses of the twelve. "And we stand above earthly things such as pain. My master."

It wasn't a conversation. It was a fact, he knew; he had heard it a hundred times over.

And so he stopped giving pain room. There was only Harry and no room for anything else.

* * *

><p>With the opening of his eyes the pain receded. But light stayed away. It was dark; wherever he was.<p>

He tried to sit upright; but there was something wrong. Chains surrounded his body, moving was impossible. Chains so tight his chest nearly burst when he breathed in.

His fingers were free though so he tried to rid himself of the inconvenience, only to find the soft feeling of tightly wound cloth.

Not chains, but bandages.

He wanted to undo them; but the exertion of coming out of the pain made him succumb to the darkness of sleep.

He awoke several times; just short moments. His bandages had been refreshed, they were still tight but his chest didn't seem to struggle as much against the unforgiving tightness as before.

But when the realisation came, consciousness went.

* * *

><p>He had heard voices, low voices, male voices. They were talking. He couldn't quite understand them though. The words were muffled, they were far away.<p>

He opened his eyes but it was dark, darker than any room had any right to be. Not even the faintest shimmer of light seemed to enter.

No that was false, for he could feel the breeze of an open window grazing his uncovered fingers.

It wasn't that the room was dark, it was that he could not see the light.

He was blind.

For a second he wondered how that was possible, before he remembered. His memory was crystal clear.

"Izanagi" deny the moment Orochimaru wanted to take over.

But that hadn't been enough; it wouldn't have ended the Sannin. And he had promised, vowed even, to remove that festering wound from this earth.

And so he had created a paradox. A second ''Izanagi' to deny the effect of his first one.

And as he had expected, had gambled on, Orochimaru fell into the abyss; where all things went that could've happened yet didn't.

* * *

><p>The first time someone tended to him while he was awake he kept quiet.<p>

The person's hands were rough, calloused, male hands.

He was unbandaged, unclothed, washed with lukewarm water. The window was still open for the wetness felt cold on his skin.

His mind drifted away as the movements on his body repeated, circling motions slowly lulling him to sleep.

* * *

><p>"You're awake." A familiar voice said. He knew that voice; had heard it before. A hundred whispered words came back to him.<p>

He could trust this disembodied voice.

Harry wanted to nod, he had no reason to deny that he was awake, but his neck wouldn't move. "Yes."

The voice spoke again, it had an amused ring to it. "You did something quite foolish. Brave. But foolish."

It wasn't a question so Harry didn't feel inclined to respond. He had done what was necessary. He had fulfilled his promises.

For a while it remained quiet. And with soft footsteps the man left his room.

* * *

><p>Seven whole days had passed between his first conversation with the man and now.<p>

They had a cycle; Harry would lie still, the familiar stranger would take care of him. They didn't talk. They had no reason to. They had said all that needed to be said with those few words. So why did the man do nothing but sit by his side.

Harry voiced his question. And he was answered with harsh words. "You are well enough to clean yourself."

Harry tensed. So the man had noticed?

He had always healed fast.

"Are you leaving?" He had to ask.

The man was silent; and without his sight he found it difficult to read the man's intentions. He had always relied heavily on what he could see.

"No." The answer was short. But it was sufficient.

"I see." Harry heard the man gasp. "Pun intended."

* * *

><p>Three nights were filled with his skin feeling like it was slowly peeling off. "The Bijuu-chakra; it is a powerful two-edged blade." Harry had explained when the man asked what he had done to himself.<p>

"But you're not a jinchuuriki?" It wasn't a question even though it was framed as one.

He didn't have to answer the question the man had actually asked. "I siphoned the chakra from an actual jinchuuriki." He trusted this person with his life, but the life of those he cared for not so much. After all, he had already proven to be able to kill his heart for the mission, it wouldn't do to tell him who he siphoned it from, Naruto was too important to him for that.

The man grabbed his hands and placed them around a bowl of soup, it was warm. He could imagine the steam coming off it.

He had yet to really get used to his blindness. "How much longer?" Harry took hold of the spoon which had been found by his thumb just moments earlier. When the man didn't answer he elaborated. "How much longer before you leave?"

The man didn't answer directly. 'Had he offended him?' "I won't leave."

The statement confused Harry. It could mean a myriad of things. "You won't leave?"

The man chose that moment to stand up and walk out of the room.

* * *

><p>It had been painstakingly slow, his recovery, and while he still felt off he had walked out of his room for the first time. "You're out, good."<p>

Despite knowing that it held no true function Harry's head turned enough to give the impression he could see the man. "It won't speed up my recovery to lay still in that bed. As comfortable as it might be."

"It won't. But now that you're out you're also able to do something that needs to be done." Harry the man pick something up. "Follow my footsteps, the space is clear."

Harry nodded and slowly made his way across the hall. He held out his hands to feel the wall, letting it guide him. The man opened a door, for the wind started to whistle and the wooden door was creaking.

He felt cold, the walls around him had kept the elements out, but he could clearly feel the temperature now. Was he still near Kuwain?

"It has been three weeks, your… friends, they deserve a proper burial." The man showed emotion in his voice for the first time. He had buried a lot of his friends, that much was clear. Of course he had nearly killed all of them himself, but still.

And then Harry felt it, the wound in his heart he thought that had already healed, burst open. "Yuugi, Koh." It came out stronger than he felt. They were dead, and he was dead on his feet. A walking corpse, at least that's what he felt like. The bandages probably didn't help his mental vision of himself right now.

"I went back for them after I found you." Harry heard a scroll rolling open and felt chakra spiking. A silent 'kai' and with a soft bang he could feel the dead.

Yuugi…

Koh…

The man pressed something in his hands. "It should be you." Harry felt what was given to him, a shovel. "The ground is soft here. They deserve to be buried by a friend."

Harry nodded and, with muscles that didn't quite feel healed just yet, he stabbed the shovel into the ground. A grave dug by his own arms, his friends deserved nothing less.

* * *

><p>In Konoha another Uchiha was digging a grave as well, also for his friends but for a whole other reason. Kakashi-sensei had given each of them a place in the forests surrounding Konoha to prepare for an ambush. Sasuke had already rigged his part of the woods, thin threads that would snap if they received any kind of pressure. Snap and explode the explosive notes they were connected to.<p>

It had been a costly investment, he would have to eat some of the rations he had at home or skip dinner altogether. But it was worth it to show his teammates and his sensei just what he was capable of.

Destruction incarnate.

He had a few hours left before Naruto and Sakura had to try and ambush him in his own part of the woods. Of course tomorrow he and Naruto would have to go up against Sakura. And he had found that she was scary. No scary wasn't the right word. When it came to setting traps she had become outright…

Deathly.

But neither of his teammates should be able to easily pierce through his defences. Even if they got past the web he had weaved with the strings and explosive notes… surely they would be stopped by his steel wire, after all; he had been training with it for countless hours these past weeks. Emitting chakra through the wire gave him an unparalleled amount of control over the area around it, he could feel it in his very core if anything got close to it.

By the time he was done setting everything up he had to wait a good half-hour before Sakura and Naruto's mission would start. He had already used a good half of his chakra to fill his wires up entirely. He wouldn't need to use much chakra, if any at all, to control it now.

Though it took a lot out of him to keep the connection open. He had to focus all his attention to keep control over the chakra that was coursing through the six kilometre of wire he had webbed around him. But so long as he didn't have to move the steel wire he could keep doing this for hours.

A rumble made it to his ear after a dull red light had painted the trees around him. Sasuke's head snapped towards the explosion. 'They're coming.'

Sasuke couldn't control the smirk that made it to his face. "They will definitely lose a point for warning me like that."

However the smirk turned into a thin line when Sasuke heard another explosive note go off, on the other side. "They're either trying to confuse me, or are they're stupid enough to separate?" Sasuke doubted the second, he had witnessed first-hand just how brilliant of a mind Sakura had, and it wouldn't do to underestimate the deceptive genius that Naruto actually was. The answer came to him when a third rumble made it to his ears; once again from a different location.

"They must be using Naruto's clones then, cleaning out their way to me." All of a sudden ten explosions occurred at the same time. 'Naruto… how uncouth.' Sasuke snarled. He hadn't spent his weekly allowance on the expensive pieces of paper just to let his teammates use it against him. He could feel his steel wire struggling not to give in against the strong air currents that came with the explosion. But with an iron will he forced his chakra to keep the wires down and hidden.

Another twenty explosions wreaked havoc on nature, his explosive notes must have been cleared out by now. Yet he still had no clue as to where his teammates were located.

* * *

><p>Naruto nodded when Sakura motioned for him to stay behind her. So far she had taken the role of leader between them. The clones she had instructed him to use had all died a horrible, horrible death. He still hadn't gotten quite used to dying, well; his clones at least.<p>

Sakura jumped into a tree. "Fuck." Naruto saw her foot being pulled upwards while steel wire wrapped itself around her. The only thing he could see of her after a full second was her head.

"Uhm, Sakura…" Naruto looked at her in astonishment. He hadn't known Sasuke could do something like this. Sure he had seen Sasuke use his wires to catch kunai in mid-air or use it as a sling, but nothing like this. "Can you move?"

Sakura tried to wiggle but failed. "No, I'm caught. Don't come near me!" she warned when Naruto got closer to her. "I think Sasuke can control this wire with his chakra, if he feels you coming in contact with it; this happens."

Naruto understood. He created five clones, two tried to help Sakura get out of her bind. They failed spectacularly. "You three, stay here and guard her. I'll find Sasuke."

Unrolling the scroll on his back Naruto created a bridge of sorts in mid-air, so he wouldn't have to walk on the ground or trees. Using chakra to harden the thick paper, allowing him to walk over it and stay away from Sasuke's steel wire. Naruto walked slowly though. Because Sasuke's steel wire was hard to see with his bare eyes, it didn't glister when the sun hit it because the bastard had matted the coating. And he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of winning without even facing his teammates.

* * *

><p>Sasuke was panting, his chakra was nearly depleted. He wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer. Keeping one of his teammates trapped within his wire was taxing. Especially because he couldn't just wound her, snap her legs or neck. Even though his wire was perfectly capable of both. He could even use it to sever limbs.<p>

Yes, he liked his steel wire a lot.

It had been ten minutes since he had trapped Sakura and he had another minute at most to keep his jutsu running before he would have to withdraw his chakra.

Sasuke felt something approaching, and looked around. Left, right? It was from above! He recognized the thin paper of Naruto's paper scroll immediately and made sure it would not catch him. Naruto himself was nowhere to be seen, probably hiding.

Using his connection to the steel wire he sucked the chakra back in, letting the steel wire go slack trading the powerful jutsu for mobility. The chakra he got back was nowhere near the amount he had pumped into the jutsu. He had one, maybe two fireballs in him. 'Better use smaller jutsu then.'

Naruto's paper came crashing down, hitting the spot Sasuke had seated himself just a few moments before. The earth gave in and exploded up. 'Damn it, he has gotten better with it.'

Unrolled the scroll was as fast as a thrown kunai, Naruto could manipulate its length and width. It wasn't as sturdy as his own steel wire but it didn't need to be; because even torn pieces were dangerous, If Naruto had prepared the paper before.

Sasuke crouched before darting away as the paper came for him once more. It was faster than him and soon circled him, creating a dome. "Hah! I've got you." Naruto yelled, making himself known. Inside the dome Sasuke saw the blank paper making way for inked paper as giant seals formed.

"Give up Sasuke, I've got you now."

Sasuke gritted his teeth. It wasn't over yet. He had prepared this place, rigged it to his advantage. 'Kawarami'. With a push of chakra he traded places with one of the bigger logs he had placed around.

He heard Naruto curse. 'And so the hunter becomes the prey.'

Sasuke, as silently as he could, made his way around Naruto and prepared to capture him as well, I have just a few meters of steel wire left; but it should be enough.

Naruto didn't do much, he looked like he was just standing there. Going through the handseals he had been taught years ago he created a "Goukakyou no jutsu." To incinerate Naruto's main weapon; the scroll.

Shock came over him when instead of burning the paper, Naruto and his scroll remained perfectly intact. 'What's going on?'

A kunai was pressed to his throat. "Capture, success." He heard Sakura whisper in his left ear. Before his eyes the Naruto he had attacked seemed to shimmer out of existence.

"You used Genjutsu." Sakura removed the kunai from his throat, he turned around to see her nod. "Where is Naruto?"

Sakura pointed up. And there was Naruto, floating on his scroll. "Since when can you use it to fly?"

Naruto scratched behind his ear, as if it was itching and gave him a goofy smile. "I practiced on it all night…"

Sasuke shook his head… "Of course."

All three genin turned around when with a whirlwind of leaves their sensei appeared. "Well done, all of you." It was rare to get such a compliment from their teacher. It filled him with pride.

"Now, report. Every mistake you made or saw in your plans; or that of your teammates'

* * *

><p>Harry sat still. The man was standing behind him. "I know it doesn't do to dwell on the past." He said.<p>

The man merely placed a hand on his shoulder. "You spend this time dwelling on the past as much as you need." The touch of his hand was comforting, even though the flesh under the bandages was still soft and easily irritated. "Just remember to stay in the present, there are still those who need you around."

Harry knew that. He had people who cared for him, even if it were only a few. A sole tear escaped the fortress of his blind eyes. "I never told them."

The hand left his shoulder and ruffled his hair. "You didn't have to."

Harry swallowed. He hadn't told them a lot, hadn't told them who he really was, hadn't told them of his real plans for the future. He had been himself yet had put up a façade for them. But the man was right. They already knew. They had understood him better than anyone else in this world.

"As soon as I'm healed, I need to go back to Konoha." Harry's hands clenched the fabric of the pants he was wearing.

"I will join you."

"Are you sure?" Harry asked in return. He knew that it wouldn't be easy on either of them.

The man shrugged. "The time is not there yet."

* * *

><p>Tsunade had hated the village that had taken everything she loved away from her. So when the Hokage, her old sensei, had sent for her she had declined respectfully. Only for the man to send an Anbu squad next. "Sure, I'll come with." She had told the masked shinobi when her student Shizune had begged her to go.<p>

It took a full six days before she was in the Hokage-tower. She had refused to walk faster than absolutely necessary. If she could stay away from that place a minute longer she would sign anything for it.

Shizune was walking just a few steps behind her, Tonton in her arms as if the pink animal were a purse.

She had slammed the door open and faced her old teacher as if he was the enemy. "Sensei. You ordered my presence?"

Old man Sarutobi simply nodded. "I hope you have been well since we last saw each other?"

Tsunade ground her teeth, so he would act like that; fine. "Sensei, cut the crap and just tell me what you want from me."

The change was instant, the old man in front of her turned into the Hokage within the blink of an eye. "Take a seat."

"I'd rather stand." Tsunade folded her arms under her hefty chest.

"Sit." His voice wasn't strict but Tsunade knew when she crossed a line. She shove the chair back a little and seated herself. "Good, now I need you to understand that what I have to say will have to stay between just the two of us for now." He didn't look at her while saying that though, he looked at Shizune and Tonton.

"Fine; Shizune, go make preparations for us to stay the night." Shizune left with a quick confirmation. "Now, sensei, tell me."

"Last week I received a scroll brought to me by a crow." Opening one of the drawers in his desk the Hokage retrieved the scroll and gave it to her.

She opened it and read the short message in it. "He's dead?"

"He is."

Tsunade felt several feelings rising up. "Good."

"Read the rest." He urged her, Tsunade did and her eyebrows rose.

"So it was a cover-up after all?" She tossed the scroll back. "Really sensei?"

Hiruzen folded his fingers and looked her dead in the eye. "The boy did what needed to be done." No wonder she hated this village. As if the death of an entire clan, a founding clan, could be explained with just a few words.

"You want me to perform the operation?" She asked reluctantly.

"I do."

Tsunade sighed. "I won't do it out of the kindness of my heart, I don't do charity."

"You will be compensated, of course." He smiled at her. "Triple S-rank pay should cover it."

'Dammit.' Tsunade cursed silently. She was a sucker for money. "I will leave tomorrow."

"Thank you, Tsunade-hime."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Short chapter yet a very important one. We are nearing the time of the Chuunin exams in the Original timeline. Some things have changed, some things haven't. But yeah.


	37. Two brothers part 3

**Two brothers part 3**

Tsunade had traveled for seven days and six nights on foot. She didn't accept missions a lot these days, but that didn't mean she didn't keep herself in perfect shape.

Every night since she had abandoned active ninja duty she had stored her yin-seal with all the chakra she had left. If it would ever come to it she could fight for a month, nonstop, and still not deplete that well of chakra.

Shizune was trailing behind her, holding Tonton just as tightly as she normally did. "How much further Tsunade-sama?"

"We're already where we should be. This is the specified meeting point." Tsunade studied the place around her. It was a good meeting spot. There was coverage provided by the humongous trees; if someone wanted to spy on them it wouldn't be difficult.

"So what now?"

Tsunade walked towards a boulder and sat on it. Rummaged through her sling purse and retrieved a bottle of sake. "Now we make ourselves comfortable and wait."

* * *

><p>Tsunade stiffened, ever so slightly, as she noticed someone watching her.<br>"Shizune, get Tonton."

Shizune didn't waste any time and grabbed the cute little piglet.

"Whoever you are; show yourself!" The Sannin's loud voice made Shizune wince, even if just a little. It was a very piercing voice.

All around them crows started to gather into a murder.

Narrowed, honey brown eyes honed in on the murder of crows that merged into a person.  
>"Uchiha Itachi."<p>

The man bowed his head out of respect. "Senju Tsunade."

"To think I would see you outside of the village on friendly terms." Tsunade walked towards the younger man and stretched her arm out to give him a hand.

Shizune watched with keen eyes, ready to intercept at the first sign of ill-intent.

Itachi shook the Sannin's hand with his own. "Thank you for coming."

Tsunade cusped the Uchiha's face in her hand, tilted it back, left then right and gave him a stern look. "You're ill."

"I'm not the one-" Itachi started, but Tsunade wouldn't have any of it.

"Don't bother; I know your kind." Tsunade let go of the Uchiha. "Where is he?"

"Follow me."

* * *

><p>Harry wasn't sure whether or not the man had left. But he knew he hadn't felt his presence for nearly eleven hours.<p>

Eleven hours, the longest he had been alone in weeks. Harry didn't like to feel alone for treacherous thoughts, guilt, sorrow and self-pity were his only company in those hours.

For a moment he felt nothing, clearing his mind. It didn't last long.

He had hoped this life could be different. Being Harry Potter had been difficult, expectations had chained him down for decades. And after those decades came the centuries of near mindless wandering.

And then he should've died but didn't. He had tried to live a normal live... But it wasn't meant to be. True to his luck he had been born into a family with skills so impressive they seemed like magic. And so he had been sucked into a live possibly more dangerous and unforgiving than his previous one.

Harry's left hand traveled to his face. It was an extremely bizarre feeling to hold his hand in front of his face and not being able to see a thing.

'It feels like a dream.' There was no real darkness that reminded him of keeping his eyes closed, even though they were. There was just nothing.

With the loss of his eyesight, also went his primary weapon. The thrum of his chakra went unchanged, but Harry knew he relied heavily on his Sharingan in and out of battle. There was knowledge stored in his eyes that he wasn't able to retrieve now that they had lost their light.

Most of his jutsu had been copied... Copied and stored in his Sharingan.

Harry walked outside; if he were to return to Konoha he needed to know of what use he could still be. If his shinobi career was over he could always go open a restaurant, or go into politics... The village was far from perfect after all. It could do with some fresh ideas.

Outside the sheer cold battered his senses. He placed his hands on the ground, his warmth made the thin sheet of ice between his skin and earth melt away. Harry collected his chakra and pushed it into the earth.

And he felt connected to the world around him. Suddenly he wasn't as blind as he had previously thought. His connection to the trees and bushes nearby was just as strong as it had always been.

Pine trees. The needled trees that were silent. He liked the trees near Konoha so much more; they had stories to tell. They had history. These trees were sluggish, and felt as cold as the temperature around them.

With some concentration, chakra and time Harry birthed a normal broadleaf tree. Between his hands, first a small twig but quickly growing into an oak as wide as Harry himself, yet thrice as tall.

His own trees didn't have much to convey yet. They didn't sing the tune of nature, they were too young. 'If Rin-sensei could hear me now...' A small smile made it to his lips. 'She'd laugh herself silly.'

Harry knew the tree he had just made wouldn't survive for long in this climate. So standing up he placed his hand on the impressive oak, as his hand merged into the wood Harry absorbed the tree back into himself.

Harry, out of habit, turned his head sideways. "Are you going to talk, or just stare?"

"I didn't know anyone other than my grandfather could manipulate trees like that." A female voice said curtly.

The words registered in Harry's head and it didn't take him long to connect the dots. "Senju Tsunade." He bowed his head slightly. "Are you here for revenge?"

A moment of silence passed between them. "For it was I that killed your teammate after all."

"Don't be absurd boy. Orochimaru was dead to me the moment he betrayed the village." Tsunade paused and walked towards Harry. "I came here because of a mission..."

Harry stayed still, a mission could entail a lot of different things. "What kind of mission?"

"The nurturing kind."

* * *

><p>Back in Konoha Naruto shivered. "Sasuke..?"<p>

"I know, Naruto." Sasuke's eyes were fixated on the girl in front of them. She had held her ground for a good hour, and though she looked to be worse off than either boy in front of her, she didn't seem intimidated by the odds that were stacked against her.

Their objective had been simple. Find and capture Haruno Sakura. Little did they know that the girl was able to counter any- and everything they threw at her.

Sasuke's steel wire? Countered by the magnetized poles she was encircled by.

Naruto's exploding scroll? Sakura had stolen it when the boys had been distracted by a genjutsu.

Sasuke's elemental jutsu? Well it had worked, on the first three bunshin- she kept replacing herself with simple clones.

"We only have ten more minutes... If nothing works, we just might have to try brute force." Sasuke said, placing a hand on Naruto's own and forcing chakra into his teammates' network.

"What took you so long?" The blonde accused more than asked.

"It is not my problem you can't escape her genjutsu without help. Now just spam your kage bunshin and create an opening in her defense, I'll try getting behind her."

Naruto nodded, he knew very well he couldn't perform a genjutsu release if his life depended on it. Still, the sight of Sakura lying dead on the ground for no apparent reason made him realize that he was trapped inside one nonetheless. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto whispered intently. Around him a good dozen clones appeared. "Drop your weaponry guys, no use getting pulled into those poles."

His clones followed the orders, and with emptied pockets they charged at Sakura- who did naught but smile as if she had already won.

Within seconds the shadow clones were upon the Kunoichi. But there was no denying Sakura's efficiency in setting up traps. None of the clones managed to get beyond the magnetized poles for the ground exploded under their feet.

Naruto winced, that had been unpleasant.

"Meh, Sasuke... Sasuke?" Naruto looked around- but Sasuke was nowhere to be seen.

Sakura looked like she had lost track of their teammate as well. Which meant that he had taken advantage of the smoke and hubris flying around. "Kage bunshin!" Once again a handful of clones came into existence.

Sakura didn't look as smug as before with Sasuke having escaped her sight. Naruto was just about to launch another attack when Sakura suddenly went rigid, lost her balance and promptly fell over.

"Mission completed." Sasuke said, revealing himself from behind Sakura.

"I don't get it." Sakura said ten minutes later when they sat before Kakashi. "I had countered your wires..."

Sasuke smiled, not a friendly smile; no a smile that said he felt superior. "You had a counter for my steel wire, yes." His hand searched something in a pouch on his leg. "But I still carry the normal ninja wire with me, just in case."

"Well done, all three of you." Kakashi petted Naruto on his head, ruffling the already messy hair. "Now, I have another mission for the three of you."

The three genin all looked eager to hear their instructions. "When I was assigned your team there was something the Hokage wanted me to prepare you for. You see, once every six months there is a chuunin-exam."

"The Hokage wanted us to participate in them." Sasuke concluded.

Kakashi narrowed his eye. "That is a part of it, but not what was most important. I was asked to train you three, to prepare you for more than mere participation; I was brought in to have the three of you win the chuunin-exams." He let the words sink in.

Naruto didn't seem to think much about that statement but Sakura's eyes gave something away. "Yes, Sakura, do tell what is on your mind."

"Well sensei... Isn't it so that once every six months there are chuunin-exams?" She started slowly, carefully placing her words as if they would lead her to some hidden truth.

"That is correct."

"Then the question we should ask you should be what makes these chuunin-exams so special, what makes it different than the others? Or perhaps, who makes it different?" Now her head turned, and she looked at the two boys on her team with questioning eyes.

Sasuke looked at Naruto while Naruto tried his best not to look at either one of his teammates. The Hokage must've had 'that' conversation with the blonde already.

"Actually, the question we should ask." Sasuke added. "Why are you telling us this?"

Jackpot. Kakashi leaned forward as if he was about to tell them something something incredibly important. "I was brought in to help you win. The Hokages exact words I cannot repeat but because of his orders it will be up to you three to make sure Konoha will have a good show to give when the exams come." With a flick of his wrist he procured a kunai. And made a circle in the ground. "Konoha will host a chuunin-exam the likes of which hasn't been seen before. And I have planned for the three of you to make it into the finals."

Kakashi stabbed the kunai in the middle of the circle. "The three of you have certain advantages, first of all... The exam will be held in Konoha, thus I know exactly what will happen." He took the kunai out of the ground and made another figure in the ground; this time a square. "This is the forest of death. The outer edges are easily to travel through. The three of you will have to focus on the center of the forest. It is your mission to make sure that the forest of death will be the place where you are master. Consider it your home for the next month.

Naruto frowned. "But Kakashi-sensei... Isn't this cheating?"

"Is it cheating to prepare yourself for a mission?" Kakashi asked in return.

Naruto shook his head. "But..."

Whatever Naruto had wanted to say was stopped when Sasuke placed his hand on the blonde's shoulder. Naruto blinked, stared at the Uchiha then nodded. "Kakashi-sensei. Are we the only ones with this mission?"

Sakura's head turned so sudden her braided hair whipped her in the face. "No."

Quickly to ask another question Sakura procured a notepad. "Kakashi-sensei; what else can you tell us?"

Kakashi smiled, he liked this team... They were practical.

* * *

><p>Harry was sitting at a wooden table. Near his feet, a small pig was trying to find a way to lie comfortably on the ground.<p>

Senju Tsunade was sitting at the same table, a half emptied bottle of sake was being re-opened. The cork made a popping sound as if it was taken out of the bottleneck with great force.

"Shizune; start disinfecting that room to prepare for surgery." Behind him, Harry heard the young woman steadily walking upstairs.

"So how does a boy like you end up killing a man like Orochimaru?" Tsunade asked before emptying the bottle of sake in one go.

Harry felt uncomfortable. Here was a woman he had read and heard about, but had never met before asking questions with difficult answers.

"I didn't kill him..." Harry caught his hands trying to busy themselves with the hem of his shirt.

"Of course you didn't." Tsunade said, the alcohol on her breath was strong enough to reach him before the sentence had ended. "But humor me."

The pig at his feet stopped moving, having finally found a comfortable spot to sleep. "I enacted a paradox. Trapped him in a place where his actions did take place but didn't have any effect." Harry's hands searched for a bottle of their own to hold. He had heard the man who had taken care of him so far place one just in front of him.

When he took hold of the bottle he uncorked it and sniffed at the smell it released. It was something sweet; with peach. Taking a sip Harry felt, more than tasted, the syrupy liquid slowly drenching his tongue. "If such a place exists he should be where all things go that could've but didn't."

Without his eyes it was nigh impossible to know how the female Sannin reacted. Though her clipped answer gave away enough. She found it hard to believe.

With the conversation seemed to be done with as silence was all that remained. Harry downed the last bit of the syrupy drink and threw the bottle where he knew the bin was. The dampened sound of the bottle hitting a surface told Harry his aim had been true. "So... The Hokage knows?"

Tsunade snorted. "My old sensei knows a lot of things."

Harry started to dislike the woman, her attitude was... Brash. As if everyone around her was hardly worth her time so she just discarded their feelings. "I meant about my survival."

"He knows."

Apparently the conversation was over because Tsunade stood up and walked out of the room.

Folding his arms Harry let himself lean backwards into the comfortable chair. The pig at his feet was already sound asleep if the soft snoring was anything to go by.

But just as his head started fall sideways, the man walked in, and Harry couldn't help but become fully awake. "Why did you ask for her?"

The man stopped walking. "I promised you, I wouldn't leave you. She will fulfill that promise for me."

The man had betrayed him before and hurt him in ways a stranger could never do. The death of his first real sensei was still freshly edged in his mind. Despite that he still missed him. Still loved that man like a brother. "What do you mean?"

"You will see."

That wasn't the kind of answer Harry wanted from the man.

Harry stood up. "I'm going to rest." At his feet Tonton stood up as well and followed after Harry, as he made his way to what had become his room.

In his room Harry lied down on his bed. His head was hurting; soon the time would come for him to go back to Konoha. And he would have to be in the same village as Koh's family. In the same village as Yuugi's clan.

For a moment, an intense flash, he remembered their faces. Dead bodies. But before he could delve into his darker feelings the pig that had followed him jumped on the bed and buried her snout under his arm. "You would've like them." Harry raised his arm to give the piglet more space.

And for some reason he started to talk to the pig. And he was sure she understood. "Yuugi would probably declare me insane... Would've..." Harry swallowed something, he wasn't sure what. "She was never the kind of girl to go easy on anyone, no matter the situation. It was what made me like her, you know?"

Tonton just laid still; but it was comfortable and easy to talk to the little creature. Harry hadn't been able to do that a lot lately. Talk that was. But now that he started to, he couldn't stop. He told stories about his teammates, their history; the way Koh could sit still for hours on end training with his bugs. How Yuugi would slap him on the hand when he wanted to take the last bun during lunch.

He was asleep before he had run out of stories to tell. But for once his dreams weren't plagued by their ghosts.

* * *

><p>When he awoke next, a new day had clearly dawned. Not that Harry could see it, but the smell of eggs was unmistakably there. And eggs meant breakfast.<p>

A full nights' rest had done him good. His head felt clear and despite the early hour he was energized.

Stretching his arms out, a yawn escaped him. "Slept well, I presume?"

Harry nodded, and the voice started to giggle. "You look a right horror, come sit- let's get a comb through that mop of hair."

"I haven't really been able to see how I look, but a 'right horror' sounds a bit much." Despite his words he made his way to where he knew his chair was and sat down.

With a pulling motion his head was snapped back. It felt unnatural, as a ninja, to let someone get so close, have someone in the position to snap his neck so easily. But right now he just had to trust his gut feeling; Shizune could be trusted.

"When I was little my mother combed my hair like this every day." Harry felt his hair being pulled methodically out of his scalp. "I hated her vanity. The way she braided my hair, pulled it so tight I would cry." Her voice was soft, demure but somehow there was an edge to it, something that didn't belong, Harry couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"I didn't understand my mother. She was at home while my father fought for our country in the war." Harry was sure he had lost a handful of hair by now, but the young woman kept on brushing. "I was a child, not much older than you are now when Kumo invaded the village my mother moved us to. I still resented her and her weakness. While shinobi were fighting for our lives on the street my mother was simply brushing her hair. All she told me was that everything was going to be fine."

Her voice cracked, emotion drenched her next words. "I was wrong, I resented my mothers' weakness not seeing how strong she actually was. When the fighting died out, the door to our house opened and I'll never forget my mother standing in front of me. Wearing the apron she always wore while cooking in the kitchen. They killed her."

Shizune stopped. As if she was contemplating on what to say next. Meanwhile Harry felt entirely uncomfortable by the private story. Sometimes just keep silent was best.

"It was only when my uncle and Tsunade-sama took me in that I realized my mothers' strength. There is power in being presentable. To look like you could face a battalion of Kumo-nin even when you're at your frailest." Shizune placed the comb on the table and used her hands to style Harry's hair further. "Now that is better."

Harry wasn't quite sure what to say, he didn't know this girl... At least not really. And she didn't know him, yet she had shared such a personal thing. "Thank you." He said. He didn't specify what he was thankful for.

Shizune petted him on his head. "No problem Uchiha-san."

"Harry." He returned. "Call me Harry." After all, that was all he was. Just Harry.

"Sure, Harry." Shizune walked towards the kitchen. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"Is there still some of that syrupy juice I had yesterday?" He asked.

"Syrupy juice?" She asked while Harry also heard the refrigerator being opened. "There is only water in here."

"Oh." The sound of two bottles of glass clinking told Harry she had already picked his drink. "Some water is fine as well."

Harry held his hand out for Shizune to place the bottle in. The water bottle felt cold against his skin, he sipped the even colder liquid and let it slowly go down his throat. "So you and your brother?" She tried.

Harry couldn't help but raise his eyebrow. 'That talk earlier was to ease me into this conversation... What a nosy little girl.' "What about me and my brother?"

Harry didn't like it when people pried. Nothing good ever comes from people that wanted to know about him and his. Especially not people who tried to do it in such a manipulative way.

"You two don't really seem to talk much." She tread carefully, her voice sweet as if she was talking to a child.

Of course she couldn't know that Harry hadn't been a child for a long time. Not feeling like playing this game Harry placed the bottle on the table and crossed his arms while sinking back into his chair. "What is it you want to know, Shizune?"

If the sudden change in attitude surprised her she did a good job of hiding it in her response. "Itachi-san seems to care a great deal about you, going so far as to call in Favors from the Hokage to summon Tsunade-sama here. Yet you've hardly acknowledged his presence so far. Why?"

Harry relaxed. 'Was that all she wanted to know? I wonder if this is out of personal interest or because she has orders to investigate the relation I have with... That man.' For a second Harry didn't answer. Until he came to a conclusion and answered honestly. "It's not your business."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry." She started.

But Harry wasn't feeling it. He didn't have the patience or respect for this girl to play this game. "Don't lie. Our entire conversation and this setting was carefully crafted so you could interrogate the fragile and perhaps even traumatized child soldier you thought me to be. But let me rectify that image for you." Harry stood and let his chakra build up. "I am not fragile, weak or easily swayed. I am however tired of people underestimating me, next time if you want to know something don't tiptoe around it." The air of eggs that had first lured him into this room suddenly smelled repelling.

With those words Harry left, walking towards the door, he needed some fresh air.

* * *

><p>"He's in a clearly agitated state, Shizune. What with the door slamming and foul look he is giving everyone... It makes me wonder; what did you do?"<p>

Shizune felt her heart beating in her throat. "Tsunade-sama I... I..."

Tsunade rubbed her forehead as if she had a headache. "You tried to -talk- to him, didn't you?" The Sannin didn't even need a verbal answer as the medics' face betrayed her. "You need to stop caring about every poor soul you see."

Shizune looked away as if ashamed before steeling her resolve. "He saw his teammates die in front of him. He will need someone to talk to. Needs someone to help him make sense of this world again."

"Grow up Shizune. Don't be so naïve. He's a shinobi. They deal with death on a daily basis. If he can't get over his self-pity or guilt that is his problem. Not yours." And with that the talk was over because Tsunade switched subjects. "Have you prepared everything for the surgery?"

"Yes Tsunade-sama."

"Good. You will do the extraction. I shall do the implantation."

"Of course Tsunade-sama."

The look on the Sannin's' face softened. "Shizune, just don't get attached to kids like that. They'll only end up hurting you. They'll just end up dead."

Shizune looked down. "I understand Tsunade-sama."

Shizune walked to the window, looking outside while her arms rested in a folded position. It pained her to hear Tsunade say things like that. Her aunt in all but blood had changed so much from the warm person she used to be.

Shizune understood the bitterness she felt towards the world, the village and ninja. But it was the stubbornness in the way Tsunade held on to that pain that made it difficult to help her.

She could handle the drinking and gambling. She could handle the isolation from the rest of the world. But it was difficult to handle her sensei's attitude when it came to people who needed help. Because it went against anything Tsunade had taught her before.

Still, she owed it to her uncle, and to the Sannin to take care of her. To keep her company.

'I just hope that one day she will be able to forgive herself for not being able to save him.'

* * *

><p>Being surrounded by nature had always calmed him. There was something about it that eased his mind. "You have changed."<p>

"Not as much as you might think. Itachi." The name was added as if it pained him to say it.

"You're not my naïve little brother anymore. Shinobi life tainted your innocence." Itachi sat down beside him. "Of course there is only me to blame for that transgression."

It felt like a punch in the gut, those words. They hurt. "Burdens aren't meant to be shouldered on just one person." Harry tightly wound his arms around his legs; as if hugging them. "But then again, a pot calling the kettle black. It is easier to share words of wisdom than living by them."

Itachi's chakra pulsed, it was interesting to notice the lack of sight forcing him to focus more on his other senses. "How is Sasuke?"

"Better, there was something, but I took care of it." The way he said it sounded accusing. 'Why am I so angry? I had forgiven the boy, yet here I sit next to him and all I want to do is scream at him.'

"You're a better brother to him than I am." Itachi's words were slow to register.

Again anger riled up. And this time Harry decided to vent it. "I am."

Itachi didn't respond. But Harry knew he was being unfair, was being spiteful. Itachi had sacrificed everything he had, everything he was for Sasuke and him. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"Reality is cruel; and it is seldom, very seldom people are this real with me Harry." Itachi inched closer so they sat side to side, like they used to sit on the porch. "Thank you."

"Don't be like this Itachi. Don't be such a martyr, don't just sit there and take it all."

"You're angry."

"Of course I am! You let him kill her!"

"Rin." The name came out as if long forgotten.

"Yes, Rin!"

Itachi's body was like a statue so hard. "So even after having killed Orochimaru you feel this resentment. It is natural; to feel pain for those we lost. But it is unhealthy to harbor all that pain, that hatred inside of you."

Harry sighed. "You are trying to fix me. Don't, Itachi. I am not broken. It's just that I don't understand why you let him her. There must've been a hundred ways in which you could've warned us, me. But you didn't and I want to know why."

"Because he would've killed you all."

"How do you mean?"

"Our mission was simple. Kill Rin. And kill everything that stands in your way." Harry felt Itachi shoulders go down a bit. "I made sure you were out of harm's way. You weren't supposed to know she was dead until a few hours later."

Harry let that information sink in. "It doesn't make it right." He said honestly. "But I understand."

They sat outside until Harry got too cold. 'I'm getting too old for these temper tantrums.'

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> A slower chapter once more. I keep finding it difficult to write Naruto's character... Because I changed him in some ways but left him unchanged in a lot of aspects as well. I can't wait till this arc is over for the next arc has a lot more action in it, which is easier to write than conversations.

Also, let me know what you thought of manipulative!Shizune.


	38. Tales by a campfire

**Tales by a campfire**

Harry was lying on his back. The nothingness he was surrounded by was filled with heavy chakra. "Harry-san, I have deactivated all nerve-endings, you should feel nothing now, correct?"

It was aweinspiring to witness the sheer brilliance Shizune displayed in her medical jutsu. In just two seconds she had, with her chakra alone, manipulated his brain into thinking he had no feeling, anywhere. "Correct."

"Good, then I shall proceed with the surgery. First I will open the eye-socket with two incissions. If at any point you feel discomfort warn me." It was strange, no strange wasn't the word. It was otherworldly, he couldn't see, he couldn't feel. Yet he was awake. His brain couldn't quite wrap itself around its current state. Not even his time between this world and the one before could quite compare.

"Exenteration of your left eye has been completed. Are there any sensations you're feeling at this moment?" Shizune asked, her tone flat.

"None." Harry replied, it was weird; he could perfectly control his muscles, but he couldn't feel them.

It took Shizune a lot longer to extract his right eye. "You've done well Harry-san. There seem to be no complications."

"What's next?" Harry asked, Shizune was about to answer when the door opened.

A soft, high, yet polite sounding voice spoke up. "Shizune-sama, Tsunade-sama needs you in the other room." Without a word she left his side and Harry wasn't sure what to think.

Was something wrong with Tsunade? Itachi? Harry couldn't just lie still in this room if something was happening.

But what could possibly have happened, had Tsunade revealed her cards and actual mission? Something other than Itachi had requested? There was a chance, a small one, that this was Konoha's way of getting rid of the Uchiha for good.

But that would mean that their next target would be Sasuke. Besides; Shizune had been nothing but perfect during the procedure of extracting his eyes, even though there had been a thousand and one chances to kill him there; while he couldn't possibly defend himself.

No, betrayel didn't fit the situation he was in right now. So there must be something else.

Harry wanted to know what was happening but without his eyes he couldn't see and right now he couldn't get up either. Having no feeling in your body at all made it impossible to move around, even though he could move; he had no way to know whether he was moving. Harry vowed then and there never to let this happen to him again.

He strained his ears, adding chakra to make the tiny hairs in them hypersensitive. Harry quickly came to the discovery that he had neglected this sense, for all he heard were soft murmerings. Not sounds of panic, nor the sound of battle.

Harry laid still for a good hour, which was the time it took Shizune to return.

"What happend?" Harry asked when the woman stepped into the room.

"Your brother has been ill for quite some time."

Harry silently begged the woman to continue. "When Tsunade-sama started the same surgery you underwent, she discovered a tumor that had spread."

"Your brother is currently being monitored by Tsunade-sama and appears to be stable. We have cut the tumors out of his body, however it wasn't just that."

Harry heard her sit down. "Cancer doesn't appear in ninja families. The body's immune system is aided by chakra and is usually strong enough to keep the body healthy. That is why I was summoned, Tsunade-sama had me perform diagnostics, to confirm what she suspected."

"What?"

"Itachi-san suffers from arsenic-induced-leukemia. Tsunade-sama is currently filtering the arsenic out of his system, but that is not enough the damage has already been done. Because of the leukemia he will need a bone marrow transplant."

"What are the odds of him surviving?" Harry asked with a clarity of mind he shouldn't be having right now.

"If we give him the transplant, the odds would still be stacked against him. One in the three people undergoing this-"

"I understand." Harry interupted cooly. "You can use mine, right? Because we're brothers."

"There is only a one in four chance that you're a match..."

A form of desperation and powerlessness seeped in. "Then you should test me."

Shizune nodded- not that Harry could see that. "I will need you to lie on your side." Harry knew, more than felt, that Shizune turned his body so she could acces the small of his back.

When he heard the tell-tale sound of flesh being penetrated by metal he had to remind himself not to move.

It was hours later that Harry, who was awaiting the results for the test that Shizune was conducting, stood at his brother's bedside. His own surgery had been succesful, Tsunade had given him Itachi's eyes. Bandaged him and told him to take it easy for the next week and a half.

Harry searched for Itachi's hand with his own and found it, cold and frail.

It didn't match with his recollection of Itachi's hands. He was supposed to be strong and warm... It was wrong; itachi was not weak, he was the strongest boy Harry had ever met.

And now he was sick..?

Harry let go and climbed onto the bed to lay down next to Itachi. His own hands tangled around Itachi's.

* * *

><p>Anko was going through the paperstack on her desk, in front of her a genin stood patiently waiting for her to give the girl her file. "Argh, asking me for shit like that, as if I don't have anything better to do." Anko gave the genin a dirty look. "What does Kakashi need it for anyways?"<p>

The genin, a girl with pink haired, braided tightly in two tails, raised her shoulders in a non-committal way.

The stack she was going through came dangerously close to falling a few times, there must've been hundreds of files placed on top of eachother. Just when she reached the last file Anko looked up, eyeing the girl suspiciously and took the file out. "This is the list, make sure Kakashi knows to give it back to me before next week."

Sollemnly the genin nodded. "I will."

Anko handed over the file, but before she let go she licked her lips. "If he doesn't give it back on time, I, will, hunt him down."

With great precision the girl opened her vest and put the file inside before zipping it up again.

As the genin left, Anko waited for the door to close before she reached down and withdrew her breakfast dango sticks.

* * *

><p>Sakura walked towards the trainingfield, their sensei, Kakashi, had given her team the entire month to prepare for chuunin exams. To get to know the Forest of Death and come up with strategies for when they would be faced with their opponents.<p>

The first week had been intense, they had trained non-stop, using the Forest of Death as their warzone. It had been a free for all, it had been Naruto's idea and initially she protested against it. But Naruto had thought about it quite thoroughly and his reasoning was, surprisingly, good. What better way to get to know the forest than having to live in it for a week with all senses on sharp?

It had been the first time Sakura had hunted her own food, and cleansed the water in the few lakes the Forest of Death hid under it's foliage to drink. The week had been tiring; trying to remain hidden while also trying to capture her teammates. But after seven full days she did feel accomplished, she had been caught once by Sasuke, but had managed to escape when Naruto attacked Sasuke. Both boys fought until they couldn't fight anymore, and that was when she had struck.

Neither Sasuke nor Naruto had been willing to admit defeat and so they had teamed up against her. In the end they had all collapsed to the ground, when after a good hour they were too tired to continue. But that was when the Forest of Death itself decided to join in. Two giant bears suddenly came out of the dark. If it hadn't been for Sasuke's wire being tripped they wouldn't have survived the night.

Sakura smiled, thinking back to that. How different this team felt than to the first day, she was no longer the outsider.

When she finally reached the edges of the Forest of Death Naruto heartily greeted her.

"Did you get the list?" Sasuke asked her, his eyes searching for the file Sakura had been sent for.

Sakura zipped her vest open and took out the list. Meanwhile Sasuke searched through a backpack he had brought with him. "Anko didn't suspect a thing. We have to give it back in a week though.

Naruto nodded, taking the file out of her hands. "No problem, I'll copy it." Unrolling the scroll on his back with his chakra, Naruto let the paper float in front of him and placed the file on top of it. With his hands he formed the snake seal and slowly the ink seemed to flow off the pages and onto his scroll, reforming, glowing and flowing back into the pages Sakura had gotten from Anko. "They're copied."

"Good, tomorrow you can give Anko the files back, Sakura. Naruto can you give us each a copy?" Sasuke apparently found what he searched for in his backpack as he retrieved a small book. "Also, can you create three copies of this? This is Harry's, when he gets back I don't want him to know we used his."

"Sure, but what is it?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke started to answer but Sakura beat him to it. "That is a Bingo-book! Only chuunin and Jounin get those." Sakura looked in awe at the small book. "I didn't know your brother was a high ranked shinobi? I thought he was younger than you were…"

Naruto looked from Sasuke to Sakura and back again. "Harry is chuunin, he was in the chuunin exams when Kumo hosted them last."

"He is in the team that Kakashi trained before us." Sasuke added.

"Then perhaps he could help us? I know Kakashi-sensei wanted us to figure it out on our own, without his help, because that is against the rules… But the help of a certified chuunin would be-"

"He can't." Sasuke cut Sakura off, looking sideways, as if to avoid eye-contact. "He's on a long-term mission…"

"Oh… I'm sorry." Perhaps she was more of an outsider than she had felt?

"It's okay, you didn't know. Besides, Harry wouldn't help us even if he was here… He's always like 'let me give you a clue but go figure it out on your own'." Naruto said giving a copy of the lists to both Sakura and Sasuke, clearing the tension that had built. "I swear, he's like an adult sometimes."

Sasuke nodded. "hnn."

"Remember that time when I came over, and Harry had cooked this really weird dish but really tasty one; and he told us he was going to give us a mission?" Naruto's smile was infectious as Sakura couldn't help herself smiling herself. "And he told us it would be a S-rank mission?"

Sasuke smiled aswell. "A sink-class mission he called it."

"We ended up doing the dishes…" Naruto gave Sasuke a pet on his back. "He'll be back. I'm sure of it."

Sakura smiled. She didn't share their history, but she was defintly not an outsider, not when they so obviously pulled her into their world, their memories. Their friendship.

"Anyways, we need to crossreverence the names and clannames on this list with the ones in this book. So if we all have a copy we can go through them faster." Sasuke eyed Naruto, as if to make him hurry.

"Yeah, yeah; I'm on it."

Sakura went through her own copy that Naruto had given her, and noticed something odd. "There are no Konoha entries here?"

"That's strange, are we not on it either?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura went through the list once more and shook her head. "No, we're not."

Sasuke frowned. "Perhaps they only list foreign names?"

"It's probably because the Jounin have yet to sign us up… I mean; Kakashi-sensei hasn't registered us yet. So maybe the other Jounin haven't registered their teams either… Maybe people outside of Konoha have to administer earlier than us." Naruto said giving both Sakura and Sasuke a stack of paper, having copied the bingo-book.

Sasuke took out some ninja-wire and started to bind the pages together, Sakura seeing Sasuke do this copied him and did the same. "I guess you're right on the money Naruto. It does sound logical."

"Indeed, but it also means we do not know who we'll be facing when it comes to people from Konoha. And we already know that we aren't the only ones to enter." Sakura finished binding the copied bingo-book and placed it on the ground, sitting down herself aswell to start crossreverencing.

"Some of these names aren't in the Bingo-book, I mean, their family names." Naruto said ten minutes in.

"Well, after the third shinobi-world-war a lot of the clans had withered down in numbers so villages started to train civilian children if they had developed chakra pathways." Sakura looked at Sasuke for confirmation, but he was buried deep in his list and bingo-book. "Besides, a bingo-book doesn't include some of the smaller clans and villages. If we really want to do this thoroughly we would have to go to the military records. But I doubt we have the clearance to get those documents."

"Couldn't we do the same trick as we did with Anko?" Naruto asked.

Sakura seemed to think it over but sighed and shook her head. "A personal favour doesn't work with an institution like that, Naruto. We would have to fill out forms and I doubt Kakashi-sensei would be very forgiving if we got caught forging his signature and such."

"We don't need the military records; The Uchiha kept track of the big and small clans, as well as the jutsu's they could and couldn't copy from them. Though it would take too long to search through all of it." Sasuke said looking up from his bingo-book. "There must be thousands of logs."

"Not necessarily… Naruto could do it."

Naruto looked at Sakura with a dumbfounded expression. "I could?"

"Of course! Kage-bunshin?" At this both boys looked in surprise at Sakura. "I mean, you can use them to read things right? It is supposed to be the most usefull jutsu in information gathering for a reason right?"

"Uhmm, I guess…" Naruto asked more then said. "I mean, we could try."

Sasuke spoke up, a sort of finality in his voice. "Let's first finish this. And mark those whom we cannot find anything about down for Naruto to find later. Besides, I think the big clans will provide the biggest problems. Most first generation shinobi don't have any special jutsu" He looked Sakura right in the eyes as if saying she was not one of them... "Let's inventorize and come up with some plans for them first. If we have time left; I think it would be best spend practicing those plans."

* * *

><p>Tsunade stood next to Itachi's bed, the young man looked better than he had when he had lied on her operation table. The surgery she had performed had essentially blocked his chakra which meant that his body couldn't fake being healthy any longer. The first time she had seen him she could clearly see he wasn't in tip top condition; but the severity of his illness had eluded even her keen eyes.<p>

Arsenic induced leukemia, it wasn't something a ninja develop naturally… which meant there was foul-play at hand in Itachi's case. And being the controversial shinobi that he was, the list of potential people that had both the resources and will to do this was long.

The cancer so far had been kept at bay by the sheer amount of chakra the Uchiha had, if she hadn't performed her surgery he could've survived for years, maybe four or five. But now… he had months at most.

The time he had left if there wasn't a donor available, she had already ruled out his youngest brother. They weren't a match.

It had been one of a few diseases she hadn't found a cure to yet, and so dispite this case of leukemia being incredibly sad for the boy and his loved ones; Tsunade was not above using it for medical studying. She woke the Uchiha boy up and explained to him that she was going to extract some of his bone marrow to study it further.

Tsunade turned the boy around, his face down so she could acces his back, it was the easiest place to extract the bone marrow. She placed her right hand, laced with chakra, on the small of his back and numbed all nerves; the boy didn't have to feel a thing. Ten minutes later Tsunade left his side of the bed with a sample, perhaps the Uchiha boy's sickness could be helpful to others.

It was a few days later while she was testing the effects of manipulating her own stemcell into acting like one compatible with the sample she had retrieved from the Uchicha that her door opened with a loud slam.

In walked the small frame of the younger Uchiha. "I'm sorry Tsunade-sama, I told him you didn't want to be disturbed, but he wouldn't listen." The small boy, bandages still wrapped around his face, sighed.

"I need just a moment with her, she's been holed up in here for days; you can't keep telling me she will come out soon!" He threw his arm out in Tsunade's direction and pointed his finger quite irritated, something Tsunade didn't know was possible.

Tsunade pressed her lips and gave Shizune a confirming nod, letting her slowly walk back after closing the door. "Wait" she said when the Uchiha inhaled to start and speak.

Tsunade turned back to her poject, grabbed a pencil and started writing on one of the many notebooks she had scattered around her. After a minute she looked up again. "Did you know that that it takes more chakra to change the nature of one cell than it takes to run from here to Suna using shunshins?"

"Uhm, no?"

"Now you do." Tsunade closed the notebook she had used last and placed it on top of a pile of other notebooks. "So, why'd you rush in here?"

"Shizune won't tell me, so I'm going to ask you; was I a match for him?"

"No."

"Damn it."

"Is that all you wanted to ask me?" She asked, knowing that this boy's world was slowly falling apart, but he was a ninja, he would endure. Besides, she had more tests to do. No time to waste on meaningless chit chat.

He stood still for a while before he removed the bandage on his head. "I've always healed fast, can you check if I'm ready to go?"

Tsunade told him to sit down in her chair and used her mystic palm technique to read his vitals, they were good. The bones he had broken had mended, the flesh wounds he had received had healed up even before she had arrived. His tenketsu points were not in the best shape, whatever he had done in his fight with Orochimaru had taxed his body far more than it could handle, but nothing time wouldn't heal if left to slowly heal on its own. Letting her chakra surge through the boy she noticed that his eyes had healed perfectly. As if there never had been anything wrong.

"The Sharingan, it really is quite something. It's like there was never any surgery, interesting." Tsunade took some more time to check the rest of his body, his muscles had repaired themselves quite nicely. All in all she couldn't hold him here much longer. "You have an extraordinary body, you haven't just healed; you have regenerated. Mostly. I'd say if you take it easy, especially on the chakra expidenture you're as good to go as any."

The boy nodded, gratitude being evident in his smile. His eyes were still closed. "You should check if your sight has been restored, Itachi was certain that it would."

Slowly his eyes opened, there wasn't much light in this room, aside from the light her microscope generated. He held his hand in front of his eyes, he blinked a few times and squinted. Confusion settled on his face before he started to smile.

"Yes, great; you can see. Now get out of here and let me do the work I was hired for."

"But you weren't hired to heal Itachi, were you?" The boy said suggestively. "You were hired by him to heal me; as much as you're acting like you don't care, you actually do." The last of his words sounded, like he just realised the truth behind them as he said it.

"Semantics boy, now get out."

He turned around, grabbed the doorhandle and muttered two words she refused to hear and left her to do her thing.

* * *

><p>Sakura ran through the forest, she was being chased by two thick steel cables, every turn she made she could hear the wires whistle and rattle as Sasuke made them bend to his will. She was about to run up a tree when out of nowhere a third cable wrapped itself around her left ankle, Sakura tried to find her balance but it was too late. She fell, hard, face first to the ground, gratefull for the soft and gooey mud she fell in that didn't break her nose. The other two wires quickly went for her wrists and pulled her up.<p>

"You're getting faster Sasuke." She said between gasping for air and wiping the mud out of her eyes. Training for the chuunin exams these past few days had been tiring, but se had learned a lot. She'd actually managed to get to the next stage in genjutsu; the double layered ones.

"So are you, how many illusions did you place on me? Twenty?" Sasuke retracted his wires, the spools making the tell-tale sound of rattling metal.

"Actually, just nineteen, but the last one was a double layer; which made me lose track of your third cable. It's still hard to make them." Sakura, almost done getting rid of the mud, walked towards Naruto, who was sitting on a thick branch next to Sasuke. "I guess I should release him…"

Placing her hand on his forehead Sakura lifted the genjutsu she had placed Naruto under. "Oh damn! Not again! When did you get me?"

Sasuke answered the question for Sakura. "Right at the start, before you got to make a shadow clone."

"Aw, Sakura; how do you expect me to lift a genjutsu if I don't even have a clone yet?" Naruto asked undignified.

Sakura raised her shoulders. "Just stop your chakra on your own, you can't always rely on clones to do the work for you."

Naruto looked away. "Easier said than done."

Sasuke sighed. "As long as we're together you don't have to worry about it, but it is one of your biggest weaknesses Naruto. You can't rely on a trick like letting a shadow clone dissipate itself to jolt you back into reality."

Sakura saw Naruto redden. "Even if it is a very good trick." She added. "Anyways, I'm tired, perhaps we should call it quits for today?"

"All right, but it is your turn to get something to eat." Sasuke stood up and started to open his backpack, a few seconds later he retrieved a kunai which he threw towards Sakura, who in turn caught it. "Naruto and I will set up camp for tonight."

Naruto just finished making the campfire when Sasuke decided the improvised beds were as neatly made as they could and sat beside him. "Hnn?" Sasuke prodded.

Naruto looked at Sasuke to see what he meant, he had three fish on sticks in his hands which he offered to Naruto. Naruto grabbed them and placed the sticks between two of Sakura's magnetic poles that had not yet been sealed away. "I like this." Naruto said sitting back down and stretching out. "Training and just surviving I mean."

"It's not bad." Sasuke decided to follow Naruto's example and stretched himself out aswell, he groaned as the tension between his shoulderblades released. "Certainly beats sitting at home and coming up with strategies."

Grabbing a flask filled with water Naruto carried on the conversation. "And Sakura's isn't bad either." He paused to take a few sips and quench his thirst. "It really feels like we're a team, you know? Like good friends."

"Friends…" Sasuke repeated softly.

"Best friends." Naruto murmered, his head hanging low as he was suddenly very interested in a splinter of charred wood lying at his feet.

It was then that Sakura joined them. "Ah good, you already got the fish going; I also found some Oyster Mushroom, I thought that would be a nice starter while the fish is getting ready." She had a basket, filled with the funghi, in her hand.

She gave both of them a big one while she settled on two smaller ones. They didn't need to stay near the fire for long to be ready to eat and soon she had finished her first and was ready to devour the second one, they tasted really good. "You know." She said between bites. "If we get to the survival test, I don't think we can make campfires in the open like this."

Naruto looked up at that. "Argh, another problem that's need fixing. My brains are tired."

Sasuke quirked his eyebrow. "Hnn."

"Hey!"

Sakura spoke up, before the boys could really start their bantering. "The solution is simple… We stockpile on Ration Pills and Ninja Barrs."

Sasuke grabbed Naruto's scroll, seeing as he sat closest to it and gave it to the blonde. "Add it to the list."

Naruto opened his scroll with a little bit of chakra, the paper unrolled itself and ink started to seep in. Three names appeared and under each name Naruto added the pills and barrs. "Anything else while I'm at it?"

Neither Sasuke nor Sakura had anything to add so Naruto let the scroll roll itself up again.

* * *

><p>After eating their fish the three genin went to sleep. Well, two went to sleep while one was the unlucky boy that had to start the night shift of keeping guard.<p>

Naruto was perched on the highest tree he could find close to their little camp. It wasn't all that interesting; there weren't any other chuunin-hopefulls that would be after them yet. But still, it had been his idea to take Kakashi-sensei's words to heart and actually survive in this forest.  
>Sakura hadn't agreed with him, but this was one of the arguments he had used. They had to be prepared to go at it all day and than not take it easy at night. Like an actual mission.<p>

Naruto unsealed his scroll. And started to practice with it. Because it was night and he had to be stealthy he decided not to practice his explosions, he was sure neither Sakura nor Sasuke would be sleeping if he did.

The amount of paper he could unroll was unlimited, whenever he reached the end of what was actually stored inside the scroll, the scroll replenished itself taking just a bit of chakra. It was a strange weapon his teacher had given him. But Naruto liked it, with his chakra he could meet the requirements the scroll set each time he had to release another few meters of paper.

As high above the ground as he was Naruto let the paper roll all the way to the ground and let it start to wrap the paper around itself continuously; creating a dome. Paper rushed around trees and bushes and he could see and hear some animals running away from their shelters.

It was something he had done before; on a much smaller scale. Mostly he used it to defend himself, but perhaps if he made it big enough he could also protect his teammates. Or in this case a small opening in the forest.

Halfway through though the paper started to become harder to control, it became slower. He hadn't pushed himself or the scroll to this extent yet. He panicked when he felt the walls he had created wobble. It was shaking? But what was the problem? He had used his chakra to fortify the paper, and it wasn't as if he wasn't using enough chakra… He used the same amount as always.

Naruto let the paper roll up the scroll again, and slowly restarted the process; waiting for the walls to wobble again, and surely when he reached two meters in height the wind was able to make it move.

Pushing more chakra into the paper Naruto noticed the dome stabilizing. "Hmm, so the bigger it is, the more chakra it needs…" But if being only halfway through required so much chakra, how much would the entire dome need? So far he had spent about twenty clones worth of chakra on it, while normaly it didn't need more than five.

As the night went on Naruto experimented with his dome. When he had finaly finished making the dome of paper he had spent nearly all his chakra on the construct. It wasn't nearly as stable as the smaller domes he normally made; but it looked… "Impressive, Naruto."

Naruto smiled as Sakura complimented him. He had send a clone to wake her up, it was her turn to guard the camp after him. "Thanks." He said, scratching his neck in emberrasment.

Sakura looked around her; the entire clearing had been encapsuled by Naruto's chakra paper. She didn't feel any wind; nor did she see any light from outside of the dome. "I didn't know you could do this… The scale…"

"Well, I've been practicing."

"How much chakra does it take to keep this up?" She asked him.

Naruto's face reddened, he still hadn't told his team about the Kyuubi. Using this much chakra; how could he explain that? "It takes nearly everything I have."

"Wow, Naruto. Like I said, impressive. I can't imagine how hard it is to have to control all that chakra at once." She narrowed her eyes. "Is the density still the same as your smaller ones?"

"Density?"

"Does it still have as many layers of paper? Or does it the amount of layers increase when you increase the size?" Sakura looked at the paper dome with prying eyes, she jumped off the tree and walked towards it. With her index finger she poked it, the wall didn't give in but Naruto felt that more force than that could easily dent it.

"I'm not sure… Perhaps if I hadn't wasted so much chakra rebuilding it over and over again until I got it right… But right now it can't even take a few good kicks." Naruto looked down to the ground. "I had hoped to be able to use this to defend us…"

Sakura placed her hand on his shoulder. "You're still learning how to use this tool, you've done great so far. I'm sure you'll be able to use this technique properly if you keep practicing." Sakura had come back to sit beside Naruto. "Perhaps you should try to increase the amount of layers in proportion to the size of it?"

Naruto's brows furrowed, obviously not understanding what Sakura was hinting at. Naruto smiled. "Thanks Sakura… That makes sense I guess…"

"Now time for you to go to bed Naruto, get some sleep. I'll keep watch from now on."

* * *

><p>Harry was pacing outside of the large wooden home his brother had managed to secure for his healing. He was almost back to traveling strength; but inside his brother was losing his life to a sickness. His mind was being crowded by too many thoughts; but he couldn't get himself to clear them out, because Harry knew that once he did that each and every one of those thoughts would become clear. And they would hurt.<p>

Hurt in the way physical pain couldn't come close to.

But his brother was dying. And the famous Slug Princess couldn't heal him. Itachi needed him. So he would endure. After he was done pacing, for now walking in circles felt good.

Step for step he kept the same pace. Routine would keep him from thinking of more than their names. The people he cared about. The people he had let down, the people he was letting down. His friends…

Yuugi, Itachi, Koh, Sasuke, Naruto… Yuugi, Itachi, Koh, Sasuke, Naruto…

He rushed his hands through the fringe of his hair.

Yuugi's neck twisting like an owl's.

Itachi pale and weak.

Koh ripped to shreds.

Sasuke left alone.

Naruto taken advantage of.

He kept walking, circles. If he stopped… no he couldn't think about that.

Yuugi's grandmother.

Koh's father.

How could he face them?

'Stop thinking about that...' his hands turned into and trembled. He had stopped walking.

'I can't think… I must do something… Itachi is dying… He needs Sasuke…' He jumped, he ran. Going south; where Konoha was. His legs were strong, he could make it there in time. He could save Itachi. He made it to the top of a hill, using his Sharingan he soaked up how everything looked and, with his tenkutsu points aflame, body popped as far away as he could see.

He crashed into a sea of white. Snow softened the fall; but the cold bit him hard and deep. Harry shook his head and ran towards the highest point.

He would make it in time. He would get Sasuke before Itachi died.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong>

Ok, so life slapped me in the face. And this chapter became so much more difficult to write. Because suddenly someone dying wasn't just a plot-thing. Suddenly someone dying actually hurt and it sucks. And the pain hits at moments you least expect it and trying to write about someone with cancer, because that's what you've plotted for, suddenly becomes nigh impossible.

So yeah... I'm unsure of what I shall do with Itachi. Things were simple before march 10 2014 but personal life made it difficult.

Anyways, hopefuly writing will come easier now, if not then 5k worth of words isn't too short I hope. Besides, December is a busy month, Monday is my birthday, the 13th is my mothers' birthday, then come the festivities at school. I'm sure the kids will love Christmas but dear baby Jesus the amount of work it will give me... Anyways, hope to update soon.

**AN #2:**

Also working on rewriting the -painful- first 20 something chapters. The first eight have been done and the prologue has been revamped entirely. The rest of the chapters just got a paint over.


	39. Three blondes and a Monkey King

**Three blondes and a Monkey King**

Yamanaka Inoichi sat, in the chair behind his desk, in his office. He resisted the urge to close the window; the breeze made the few strands of hair, that he hadn't pulled tightly into his pony-tail, slap his face. Instead he used the loathsome chakra-control excersize to neatly stick the loose hairs to his scalp.

The person sitting in front of him must've noticed, for the womens' eye-brow quirked up for the shortest moment possible. Inoichi noticed 'the tell' only because he had been trained, to do just that, for decades.

The woman sitting in front of him was one of the few people in this world that could still give him nightmares. Inoichi could truthfuly say his childhood had been a happy one. Despite the many wars his village had taken part of, he had never truly been affected by the horrors that the walls of Konoha held out, and as he learned later on, kept inside.  
>But the woman sitting opposite of him had been the end of his childhood. And his adult life had not nearly been as safe or kind to him as his childhood had been.<p>

"So you see that it is essential to Ino's own progress that she participates in these specific chuunin-exams." The elderly woman folded her hands neatly into eachother thus closing her request that could not be denied.

Inoichi could see reason in her explanations but still, sending his little girl into the real world like that… could he? His daughter was a kind soul, she was still a child, her eyes still innocent and her hands unbloodied. Sure, she had toughened up the last few months, she was stronger than the little girl he remembered her as, but was she ready for the Chuunin exams?

"You must have great confidence in Ino's skill to let her enter, even though she _just_ graduated the academy." Inoichi looked passed the woman to one of the few framed pictures he had on his wall. There was one of his old team, back when they were genin. Back then he had been trained by the very woman that now asked him to send his child into the real world.

"I do." She answered curtly.

Inoichi didn't have to look at her face to know she was truthful. His eyes had found another picture, one of him and his wife. She had been pregnant when they took that picture, the third shinobi world war had been almost a decade before that, the world had seemed safe. Safe enough to share with a child of his own.

"You are putting her in harms way this early in her carreer?" Inoichi couldn't keep the acusing tone out of his voice, not that he really wanted to. They were talking about his daughter, his most prized possession, the one thing in his life that was perfect.

The woman in front of him deflected the question. "Do you not have faith in her?"

His answer was both traitorous as it was understandable. That's why he didn't give it to her. Inoichi was willing to sacrifice many a thing for the village; had sacrificed a lot already. But his daughter, it was just that one thing he couldn't give up. It was the one single thing more important than the village. "I will think about what you ask of me."

The woman stood up, the fabric of her clothing neatly unfolding, as if it knew that she would throw it away if it didn't. "I'll come back tomorrow. Surely you will have an answer then." She turned and walked out of his office.

Inoichi released a sigh he didn't know he had held in.

* * *

><p>Ino threw away one of her old dresses. It wasn't one of her favorites, but she had worn it often enough for certain memories to be attached to it. Most of them were ones where she and Sakura had spent time together. Something they hadn't been able to do much lately.<p>

She didn't fit it anymore though, she had outgrown it, aside from that; the floral design on it was totally last years' style. But as she did with the other dresses she had decided to get rid of, she neatly folded it and put it in the box on her bed.

Perhaps another child wouldn't mind wearing it. Despite it being last years fashion, it was still a pretty dress. The box was nearly full but Ino wasn't even halfway through her closet. "Mom, could you get me another box?" Ino shouted.

Not much later her mom walked in with another box. "I'm sure the orphanage girls will love all these clothes Ino, but are you certain you want to give it all away?" She eyed the five dresses Ino had already folded and stacked on her bed.

"Hmm?" Ino closed the door of her closet.

"I mean, it's not like you don't fit them anymore." Her mother put the box down on the ground. And held up the blue dress that was on the top of the stack. "You bought this only a few months ago…"

Ino's face crinkled, as if it was obvious. "Sure I can put them on, and they look good on me… But mom, I'm not a child anymore. Sensei is right, if I want to be taken seriously I should dress seriously."

Her mother looked at the dress, then at her own and back again; there wasn't much difference. "It's a perfectly serious dress if you ask me."

Ino rolled her eyes and put the dresses in the second box. As if her mom would understand? "Thanks for the box, mom." Swiftly she turned back around and opened the closet door. When she turned back to fold another dress her mom was already gone. Atleast her mom understood when she wasn't needed anymore.

It was a good half hour later when Ino was done. She had two boxes full of old clothing. Stacking them on eachother she went out to the orphanage.  
>The two boxes were heavy, but nothing her arms couldn't lift. She wasn't a weak little girl anymore. These days she could easily lift five times this weigth.<p>

When she reached the orphanage she dropped the boxes on the ground and knocked on the door. At first no one came, but right when she wanted to knock again the door swung open. "Hello!" the one that opened the door was a little boy, not much older than a year or four.

"Hello." Ino said back, her voice softer and kinder than it was normally. "Could you ask one of the matrons to come?"

The little boy nodded, closed the door and by the sounds of hurried feet Ino guessed he ran back in. Ino waited for a bit, and by the time the door opened again she had sat herself on one of the boxes. "Ah, Yamanaka-san." The matron that opened the door said.

The woman was young, perhaps only just eighteen, but her eyes already had small bags under them. Ino knew that working at the orphanage was hard work; for one of her d-ranked mission she had been tasked to help for a week. Ino had gained a whole lot of respect for the people working there, day and night they were up on their feet taking care of children and babies.

Behind the woman the young boy was standing, as if the matrons' dress shielded him from the stranger that was Ino.

He didn't look frightened, but he must've gotten a warning from one of the matrons because the cheer with which he had opened the door before was gone. He seemd more cautious now.

"Hello Shunta-sama." Ino bowed. Shunta had been one of the people that had shown Ino around the orphanage and taught her some of the tricks in dealing with the younger children. "I've brought some clothing." Ino patted the boxes she was sitting on to emphasize what she said.

"Ah, that's really kind of you, Yamanaka-san." The woman smiled brightly at her, and though her eyes were tired; they twinkled in gratitude. "Would you mind carrying them inside?" She asked.

"Ofcourse not." Ino hopped off the boxes and went through her knees to pick them up. The small boy looked at her with big eyes. And whispered something to Shunta.

Shunta petted the boys' hair. "Yamanaka-san here is a shinobi. Shinobi are really strong, they have to be; they defend our village."

After Ino put the boxes next to the stairs, Shunta invited her to stay for some refreshments. But Ino declined, she was already running short on time. "See you later Shunta-sama." She bowed once more. And waved at the little boy.

The child waved back and didn't stop until Ino had closed the door behind her. Looking up, the sun was already descending; which meant she didn't have much time left until her team-meeting.

* * *

><p>Ino arrived at the address she had been slipped on a note during training the day previous. It was in one of the richer parts of the village. It wasn't in a clan district, but it was still impressive.<br>Ino stood at the gate of a mansion that was surrounded by green fields of grass; a commodity in Konoha. Inside the walls there wasn't really a lot of space, so mansions like these were both expensive and rare.

The mansion itself wasn't really that impressive, it was obviously an old building. But decay hadn't set in. There were a lot of windows, which in Konoha was rare; windows were difficult to defend and in a shinobi village that was something held in high regard.

The iron gates opened just when Ino wondered if there was a doorbell. She followed the cobblestone path leading her to the front door. She knocked three times and waited. She was about to knock again when the door opened to reveal her sensei.

Ino quickly bowed. "Good afternoon Koharu-sensei."

The elder nodded approvingly and motioned for Ino to come in. "Good afternoon Ino." The tone was familiar but still polite. Despite spending a lot of time with her sensei, she didn't feel particulary close to the woman. Atleast not the way that other teams seemed to be with their senseis.

Ino was guided through the mansion, it was more spacious inside than the outside had hinted at. "You're the last one to arrive." Koharu-sensei said opening a slide-door revealing both Shikamaru and Chouji, her teammates. They sat on little blue pillows next to eachother at the low table. This was obviously the tea-room. On the table were four cups, three were filled with steaming tea and one was empty. Ino assumed the empty one to be hers.

"Tea?" her sensei asked after Ino seated herself opposite of Chouji. Ino nodded holding out her cup for the woman to fill it. "Thank you, sensei."

Shikamaru reached for his cup and held it with both hands, he blew at the surface of the tea to cool it down, which in itself was quite pointless, but most social habits were. Ino placed her own cup back on the ceramic dish. She wasn't about to burn her tongue in her eagerness to satiate her thirst.

Koharu-sensei sat down aswell, and they sat in silence for a good minute before she started to talk. "The three of you have been invited here, my home, to celebrate this." She procured three folders, Ino wasn't quite sure from where, they hadn't laid on the table…

Ino gladly took the one folder with her name neatly written on it. Koharu-sensei's handwriting was precise and elegant, it seemed to fit her. Ino envied her; while her own handwriting wasn't quite as barbaric as Chouji's it wasn't nearly as clean or elegant as her teachers'.

"Go on, open it." The elder said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

Ino opened her folder, and from the edge of her sight saw that Shikamaru and Chouji did the same; apparently they had waited for approval first aswell.

In bold letters a top of the first page she read; 'Chuunin exam – registration form' Ino gasped, this had not been what she had expected to find inside the folder. She thought they would get another mission, perhaps B-ranked, after all they had completed a good five C-ranked ones without problem.

But ofcourse, Utatane Koharu had other plans for her team. Five C-ranked missions, the minimum requirement to be entered into the Chuunin-exams. Ino quickly looked over the form, it was pretty much a standard form, asking her name, day of birth and other such things. Looking through the other pages she found more of the standard forms, asking for permission to use video-footage in the academy, asking for permission to use her name in promotion pamphlets outside of the village and other such things.

Ino closed the folder and looked at her teammates, Shikamaru didn't look all that surprised, and Chouji was still reading.

"Your clanheads have already given me permission to enroll you in this exam, but it is mandatory that the genin in question also give permission." Her sensei held three fountain pens in her hand. "I expect the three of you to do well in this exam; after all, I have trained you well… You have all improved greatly under my tutelage. Don't let fear stand in the way of this decision, each single one of you is currently skilled enough to partake, as a team however you might be.." She paused, seemingly looking for a word. "Overqualified."

Chouji seemed surprised at this, if Ino's knowledge of her teammates face was correct. The widened eyes, the parting of his lips. The overall dumb look- Ino silently laughed, looks were deceiving. She had learned that the last few months quite thoroughly.

Chouji looked big, dumb, slow even. But Koharu-sensei had unleashed something in the boy; something Ino respected. Out of the three genin in her team she had no doubts as to whom was physicly the most impressive.

She might have grown stronger under the harsh hands of her fathers' sensei, but Chouji had grown confident. And it made all the difference, just a few months ago she wouldn't have trusted him with her life in a fight… But after their mission to the land of waves, after seeing Chouji look death into the eyes without batting an eye, how could she not?

For a moment she saw flashes of her own memories. But she crushed them and forced them away, that mission had been instrumental; their team had become a unit. And she had learned to trust her teammates, and had learned to respect the old lady that was her sensei.

"Thank you, sensei." She said softly, taking one of the fountain pens and carefuly wrote her own name, birthdates and such on the forms. After her, both Shikamaru and Chouji filled in theirs aswell.

When she finished her tea had cooled enough that she risked drinking it. It tasted sweet, which was not what she expected her sensei to serve. She looked at Utatane with puzzled eyes, her sensei was difficult to pick apart. First of all the woman was intelligent, socially smart and incredibly quick-witted. And while she was old, her body had not withered. If her fight with Zabuza was any inclination, she was perhaps on par with her father who was in his prime. Perhaps stronger. Even after so many months spent in her direct environment she had not seen the depths of her teachers' being, had not seen the back of her tongue.

Putting the forms back in the folder, Ino gave it back to her sensei. "So what is next?" she asked, when both boys didn't seem able to form words in anticipation of their sensei's plans.

"Next?" Koharu-sensei parroted somehow mocking her, as if the most obvious thing in the world was what came next. Her eye drifted away from Ino to Shikamaru, as if he was supposed to know what came next.

To Ino's surprise; Shikamaru did. "Next is fighting Inoshikachou." Shikamaru's voice was flat but the way his lower lip trembled, however minutely, gave away he expected hell to be waiting for them.

For a second Ino was unsure what he meant, but then a vision of a purple boar, with yellow wings and giant antlers came to mind. She swallowed back the bile that wanted to rise. Ino looked at Chouji, "So your father really can summon him?"

Chouji nodded solemnly. "It wasn't just a bedtime story."

Ino shook off her fear of the monster her father had told stories about. She hadn't thought of the creature in years; but her father had described it very vividly. The pinnacle of raw power, only tamed by his old team through perfectly timed teamwork.

A flying boar the size of this mansion, and they had to fight it? Ino looked at her sensei. Respect for the old wrinkled wench be damned. That crazy bitch!

* * *

><p>Anko walked through the halls of the T&amp;I department, strutting like she owned the place. She didn't really, but it annoyed the otherwise stoic Ibiki. And right now she needed some entertainment. Because of the chuunin-exams she had nothing to do, and the little ruse the pink haired genin had played on her had only been funny when she could bribe Hatake in to buying her dinner. And that had been <em>days<em> ago.

It wouldn't be long before the chuunin exams would start, one more week. One dull more week. Boring wasn't a strong enough kind of word to describe the way she felt.

She walked past Inoichi's office, when she saw Morino walk out of it. "Whatcha doing here?" She asked, who cared that he both outranked her and that it wasn't any of her business?

Ibiki looked at her, just looked; his face as if set in stone so solid. Apparently her inquisitive nature wasn't quite as appealing to him as she had found it to be herself.

"Hey! A girl can ask right?" She said when he walked away. When he just kept on walking she sighed. "Lame prick."

Her eyes fell on the name plate of the office. "Yamanaka Inoichi – Head of Intelligence." She opened the door when she suddenly thought of earlier that morning when she had taken care of some administration. "Hey Inoichi, isn't your brat on that team led by Grandma Utatane?"

The blond 'Head of Intelligence' looked up from his paperwork. "Ino studies under councillor Koharu, yes."

Anko closed the door behind her and walked towards the framed pictures on the wall. "Ya know, I heard some rumours about that team." Anko stopped when she reached a picture of a young girl with blonde hair, two boys of the same age and an older woman standing behind them, the three children were smiling, and the girl had the brightest smile of the three. The older woman had her arms around the two boys that stood on the girls' side. It was a cute picture. "Heard they were the ones to capture Momochi Zabuza… Interesting rumour right?"

She didn't need to look at Inoichi to know she was irritating him, everyone in their division knew that talking about his daughter was best left to him and only him. "Not so much a rumour as a fact." Inoichi said, strectching the last word, as if Anko was daft.

"And they killed his student, right?" Anko turned around, a smile; no, a grin on her face. "An ice-user." Anko walked towards his desk and seated herself on the edge of it. "Ya know, it makes me wonder, who did the killing?" Her fingers traced the intricate design carved into the desk.

"What do you want, Mitarashi?" Inoichi sighed.

Anko's shoulders sagged, wasn't anyone gonna entertain her today? "You're no fun, Inoichi… Anyways, your brat signed up for the chuunin-exams, makes me wonder; what is that old crow up to?"

The Yamanaka sat upright. "Oh, her reasons couldn't be clearer."

Anko took the bait, like a snake bit a mouse, quickly. "Do tell!"

Inoichi leaned into his chair, sinking back. "Why does Hatake Kakashi have his genin train in the Forest of Death? Why does Yuuhi Kurenai have her genin taking B-ranked missions after just two months? Why does the new team Ino-Shika-Chou have an elder-council member as a sensei? Why are there four Kages invited to the chuunin exams?"

Anko blinked, Inoichi knew his shit. "It sounds like –"

"No." Inoichi said, cutting her off. "It doesn't sound like, it is."

Anko threw her hands into the air. "Why does no-one tell me shit like this? A Fucking fourth war?"

Inoichi stood up and walked towards the pictures on his wall. And grabbed the one with his wife, him and his daughter on it. His nephew had taken it, it was during the clan picnic last year, Ino had worn a pretty blue dress, and she had no idea what it was like to fight. "Not yet, but the elders, the Hokage; they are preparing for one." He looked at the picture, his eyes softened before he put it back on the wall.  
>"Something changed when the 'old one' died and they found 'that' body. The old garde is up to something, right now even we, the department heads, don't quite know with whom we will share the battlefield. But Danzo hasn't shown up at any of the shinobi council meetings, nor have Koharu or Homura, the Hokage has been seen training at Training ground one… Tsunade was spotted in the village just weeks ago. A war is here, we're just waiting for the first drums to sound."<p>

Gone was the grin on her face. This shit was serious, if the Yamanaka clan head was this clear while talking to her, then he must be certain. "I'll keep an eye out for her, you know. When the time comes." Anko looked Inoichi straight into the eyes. "I promise."

The head of the Intelligence department nodded. "I know."

Inside, Anko felt proud. She meant what she said. But feeling that this conversation was over she almost ran out of the room, it was just getting too goody goody in there.

* * *

><p>Koharu did her morning stretches when she felt the presence of someone other than her maid. She knew who it was, and thus decided to continue her morning routine like usual.<p>

"Good morning." He greeted her.

Stretching her left leg and putting her right leg infront of it, she straightened her arms out to fall into the second warrior pose. "Good morning" she answered back. "Shouldn't you be in your tower?"

The man chuckled. "Alas, I'm not."

Koharu quirked her eyebrow. "So what brings you here? I doubt it is to see me stretch." Fluidly she moved from warior-two into warior-three. Standing on one leg required more concentration, but she had done this daily since being a little girl, she could do this in her sleep.

"You're right, of course. Not that this isn't a sight for sore eyes." The old man reached into his pocket and retrieved a pipe, which seemingly lit itself when he put it at his mouth. "I was hoping you could do something for me?"

Koharu went back into the warrior one pose, this time switching the dominating leg. "Whatever does my Hokage want?"

Hiruzen blew out the smoke he had inhaled while Koharu changed poses. "You see, I have to go on a small journey, just a few days, two perhaps three. And while I could ask Homura or Danzo to keep watch; I'm afraid I've already sent them on their own errands."

She looked at him, a question held only at bay by her pressed lips.

"You assume correctly, I am visiting Enma, it wouldn't do to not court him properly." The hokage took the pipe out of mouth. He had traded the hokage robes for his battle attire, a black outfit with two, long tale-like ribbons attached to the back of his forehead protector. "After all, our plans do lean quite heavily on him."

Once again, Koharu was impressed by her old teammate. There was an intelligence hidden behind his eyes, behind that grandfatherly smile of his. She had nearly forgotten it, but the pact they had forged, earlier that year, had shown just how sharp his edge still was. "I'll see to it that your chair will be warm when you return." Koharu said.

"Wonderful! Well, that takes cares of things." Hiruzen placed his left hand on the ground and a summoning seal unfolded itself between the grassblades. A small monkey erupted out of the smoke that followed after the seal had completed.

"Sarutobi-dono!" The monkey clad in red robes said, bowing. "What is it you need me for?"

"I need a trip to the Forests of Jigokudani."

"Of course, I will take you immedeatly!" The monkey took hold of the Hokage's thumb and with an exciting voice screeched: "Reverse-summoning jutsu!" And just like that, they disappeared in a puff of smoke.

* * *

><p>Enma sat on his throne in the ruins of his castle. It used to be a majestic place: stone walls adorned with golden motivs telling the tale of a girl, or woman it was difficult to tell in its current state, walking up to a great tree, much of the motivs were lost since the Great Monkey King had started to rule. Now the tale was damaged or hidden by thick vines and leafs.<br>It hadn't always been his castle, but since the start of his rule the castle, which had at one point been the pinnacle of architecture and culture, had made more room for nature to come in. Or better said; in his one-man war to win these lands, he had destroyed much of the castle he now called his own.

His kingdom was vast, the entire mountain, and the valleys around it were his. The sycamore trees housed thousands of his kind. It was the most Idyllic place his clan had ever owned. Surely his forefathers would've envied him and his people, their current standing in the world and their riches. They had come a long way since his childhood.

Currently his kingdom was thriving, as it had ever since he had ascended to the throne. But Enma remembered the days in which his father had ruled… His father had been a kind king, but a weak one. Afraid to spill blood or sacrifice lives. In the time his father had ruled, these mountains had been part of another kingdom.

It was in his youth that Enma had proven himself worthy of the throne, almost singlehandedly he had usurped the throne from his father, sweeped these mountains in a rage befitting of the moniker his enemies bestowed upon him.

It had been a long time since he had last shown the world that side of him. His current populace had forgotten the blue demon he could be. But his enemies hadn't. And so the Forests of Jigokudani remained untouched by the paws and claws of his neighbours. And so he reigned supreme.

Enma's attention drifted away from pondering the past and focused on the present when he felt one of his nieces being summoned. He wondered which Sarutobi needed her help. But before he could really think about it, the answer presented itself to him when a large cloud of smoke appeared and dissipated on the stairs before his throne.

"Hiruzen." Enma leaped from his throne to the spot where the elder Sarutobi had made his appearance, threw his hands out, to greet his trusted companion with a hug. "It's been a long time."

Hiruzen reacted returning the friendly hug, patting the monkey king on his back. "That it has."

"Whatever brings you to these parts of the woods?" Enma asked, walking back to his lazily grabbed a fresh mango out of the fruit bowl next to him and threw it for the Hokage to catch,

Hiruzen caught it, eyeing the green fruit for a second. "Thank you." He bit into it, the juices trickling down to his chin, into the white haired goatee. "I think it is time to continue my training."

Enma bellowed out a laugh. "Hah! Who knew that you still had tricks up your sleeves?" Enma's face turned serious. "You do realize that it could kill you?" He stroked his tail, as if it brought him clarity of mind. "There is a reason you stopped this training back then, you couldn't even grasp the idea of it."

The Hokage nodded. His face serious. "Keywords, back then. My friend, I believe the time is right."

"It could take years." Enma countered.

"I have three days." Hiruzen said playfuly. "But I think it will prove to be sufficient. After all, I got this far on my own." He slammed his hands together, blue chakra seemed to dance on his skin, etching colored lines in his face. His face set in concentration; a gust of wind slowly building up.

"In only three days… It will be a do or die kind of thing Hiruzen." The monkey king said, looking the Hokage up and down as if to see if the man was up to it. "Very well! Follow me, I know just the place, let's travel to the Mouth of Hell."

* * *

><p>Danzo, leaning with his left hand on a cane, stood on the balcony overseeing the village. Under his keen eye he scrutinized the village, there were weakpoints barely covered from civilian eyes but they stood out like dirt on white sheets to him. It wasn't the first time he had seen this village, but it had been almost forty years since he had last set foot inside it.<p>

The village hidden in the clouds… The name was aptly given, even if painfuly unimaginative. This early in the morning the sun lit the clouds surrounding the mountains, the village nested itself in, in a golden hue. He guessed some would call it magical or pretty. But Danzo didn't see the world with words like that in mind, it wasn't Konoha; and thus not worth his appreciation.

Danzo felt someone coming close, the feeling was familiar and as he suspected he heard Fuu's voice. "Sir, the meeting will commence in ten minutes." The fact that Danzo didn't turn around to face Fuu was both a sign of trust in his subordinates' loyalty as it was a sign of the trust he had in his own skills. No ninja worth their title would ever leave its back open for an attack.

"Ten minutes." Danzo repeated disdain in his voice. Ten minutes longer than he wished to spend in this village. There had been a reason that Danzo had almost buried himself in the roots of Konoha, to be away from it made him restless.

While Kumogakure was a beautiful village in its own right, it had nothing on Konoha. There was a lack of tranquillity he had come to love in Konoha, Konoha was always busy. There were always merchants coming in, trading, selling their goods or going out, Even in the wee hours of the day Konoha was never truly asleep, because Konoha was alive, buzzing. But these mountains; they seemed too peaceful, too silent for a shinobi to feel at ease.

Fuu took a few steps back and kneeled. "Torune has secured safe passage, there seems to be no foul play at hand."

With a grunt Danzo turned around, his back going from straight to slightly hunched, his eye from dangerously sharp to almost unfocused. Where his cane normally held a strict rhythm now it made disharmonious thuds on the ground as he walked passed Fuu. The shinobi of darkness turned into an old man before Fuu's eyes, it was wrong, yet it looked right. Danzo looked the part of an old man that had left his glory days behind him. And once he spoke, even his way of talking seemed to have changed, becoming brittle, hoarse and slow. "Alas, it is time to meet with the Raikage."

Quickly, Fuu rose when Danzo passed him and kept a five step distance between them. They left the chambers, in which Danzo had rested the night in, and slowly walked through the corridors. Fuu, once or twice, faltered in keeping a perfect five step distance from the the impersonation of an old man the root leader had created, for he kept changing the pace with which he walked. Right now even Fuu couldn't see the man behind this charade.

When they reached the meeting room they were greeted by a young bronze skinned woman with her hair tightly pulled into a short pony-tail. "Good morning Councilman-dono." She offered, bowing just enough for it to be polite.

In a manner very unlike Danzo he gave the young woman a respectful nod back. "Good morning." He said. "Please be a dear, and open the door…" When the door opened to reveal a grand room, Danzo slowly walked in meanwhile giving the young woman a few claps on her shoulder, as if she had been a good girl.  
>The room was obviously used for official meetings, the wooden tables and chairs looked like they were created from expensive materials. The left wall was decorated by three paintings of men with white clothing and big hats, they looked stern and almost disapproving, as if they saw through the carefuly crafted persona Danzo was showcasing right now. Danzo spared the paintings a few seconds of his time before he seated himself in the chair the young woman pulled back for him. "Thank you."<p>

The young woman gave him a smile and took a few steps back, walked around the table and stood next to the three paintings, like a pretty wallflower. Fuu mirrored her and stood just passed arm length away from Danzo.

They waited a good three minutes before the door opened again and a dark skinned man walked in with blonde hair slicked back, white robes and a giant black belt around his waist with a golden boars' face proudly shining on the belt buckle.

The man wasted no time greeting Danzo and immeadeatly sat opposite of him. "The Hokage has sent you, his trusted right hand, to invite me into his village; hoping you will be able to change my opinion on the validity of Konoha's chuunin exams." His voice was loud, and brisk.

Danzo smiled, perching his cane, which he had held in his left hand, next to his chair. "Well, yes, that does seem to be the case." Danzo's left hand trembled slightly while he petted his right arm, like the bandages and the sling were an animal. "Hiruzen did say you were quite the straight forward person, he also told me you would very much like to see this years chuunin exams."

The Raikage raised an eyebrow at that. "Explain."

Danzo inhaled slowly, the sounds that joined the intake of breath couldn't be deemed healthy. "The Uchiha boy's brother is to participate aswell." Danzo looked slightly puzzeled as if he couldn't fathom why that would influence the Raikage's decision. But the blondes' lips thinned into a smile. "And, excuse me if I pronounce the name wrong; it's been a while since Hiruzen said them to me, Team Samui might be interested in this?"

Right then, Danzo knew he had succeeded. The Raikage, the last Kage needed to gather all Kages in Konoha, had taken to the bait.

* * *

><p>Harry had been body-popping short distances the entire day, not once teleporting further than his eyes could see, yet his tenkutsu points felt ablaze. A few not so polite words left his mouth as he had to stop for the third time in the last ten minutes. "It is like I'm crippled."<p>

By now he was halfway out of the Land of Snow, it was far quicker than he would've been by foot, but the result was hardly something he was proud of. Before the beating he had taken, and the abuse he had let his body go through to fight with Orochimaru, he could've easily body-popped himself in one go to Konoha… He had even managed to do it with two people coming along.

His clothing was drenched, not only by the snow he had ploughed through time and time again, but also by his own sweat, Harry was glad he couldn't smell himself; it probably wasn't as pleasant as he'd like it to be.

If he kept this rate up he wouldn't make it to Konoha. He knew this; he was exhausting himself and while the first few hours of doing this had helped him keep his mind occupied, right now the emotions felt more removed, as if the physical distance also created an emotional distance. Perhaps it did, perhaps it was just the total exhaustion finally kicking in.

Harry knew he couldn't go much further like this, he had to rest… Not because his chakra was drained, but because his body just couldn't handle the strain of using his teleportation jutsu one more time.

And so Harry climbed into a tree, hoping that if he was a little bit higher the cold wouldn't be as intrusive as it was in the snow. It didn't take long for the exhaustion to claim him as his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

* * *

><p>Enma stood at the edge of his kingdom, quite literally. His toes touched the edge of the steep trench named the Mouth of Hell. The trench was a good kilometre deep, and about fitfty meters wide. Smoke and gas escaped it, Enma knew that it came from the river of lava that flowed at the bottom. "This, Hiruzen, is the Mouth of Hell. It is where the summoning of Deva can be ritualized."<p>

The old man nodded. "I see. So this is the place where you'll teach me?"

Enma sat down, his legs crossing into the lotus position. "When you first came to my castle I tried to teach you the ways of my kin. I was younger, and unacustumed to your species' ways of learning." Enma paused, his hand now resting in his lap. "The path I tried to show you… it was one you could never have completed. Even if you were not as restless as you were back then. The fact that you've come as far as you have says more about your genius than the quality of my teachings back then."

Hiruzen sat down as well. He had sat with Enma like this before; many a time they had finished a spar in this exact pose; to relax the body, to focus solely on their breathing.

"But you see, I was mistaken back then; you are no monkey."

"I thought that much was obvious." Hiruzen said.

Enma smiled. "Ah, yes; I knew we were not the same, but you took to my teachings as well, or even better than any of my own kind. You are the kind of genius one sees but once in a generation." Enma's smile faded and a seriousness etched itself on his face. "Your own process in this summoning technique is proof of that much. But I have lived a thousand years, and I will live a thousand more, and it is only now that I understand what I actually did back then. I tried to teach you something I did not understand, because it came to me so naturally."

Hiruzens' wrinkles and lines seemed to soften, as if understanding dawned on him. But before he could come to the conclusion Enma continued. "I was going to wait with teaching anyone this technique until someone as talented as you came by once more. But I see the fire behind your eyes, you are determined to reach a goal. The fact you sought out my help despite the power you already have… Even though it is waning, no one in my kingdom other than I could rival you when it comes to pure strength."

Slowly Hiruzen could feel the atmosphere around him change, the very air seemed to come alive as if it was a powerline that suddenly got electricity shot through it, it felt like it finally served its purpose. "Back when I took this kingdom for my own, I used this power. It gave me vitality beyond measure, it is why I am still alive; a lifespan longer than normal. I have not been able to share this power with anyone, no one seems compatible, no one truly understands the sacrifice that must be made; but if you're willing to die, if you are willing to throw yourself into the pits of hell to get stronger then, and only then can you learn to harness the power of the Deva."

Determined Hiruzen answered. "I am."

"Good. The gasses released by the river of fire in the Mouth of Hell are rich in the kind of chakra you will be trying to acces, you will feel connected to something more; don't let it take you over... I will guide you through it; all you need to do is stay still. And remember your Will of Fire" Enma placed the tip of his tail on Hiruzens' forehead, on his third eye. And with a rush of power Hiruzen had not ever felt before he felt his control on his chakra go. "Right now I am in control, don't fight it, just relax and experience how this feels."

Hiruzen had difficulty seeing, he hardly had control over his body; the strangeness of the situation was so much more intense than what he had accomplished on his own. No wonder that he hadn't been able to understand this before, he couldn't feel this vitality while he was young, even now the concept of vitality and power being the same was hard to grasp.

Enma sat in front of him and guided the rush of power through his body. No longer was the monkey king brown skinned and white haired. No longer was his face ape-like. A transformation had taken place. In front of the Hokage sat a demon, blue skinned and an even deeper blue colored coat of fur danced like flames in the wind.

Decades ago he had seen this face once before and wanted to use the same kind of power as the monkey king, he had failed; not even coming close to feeling the power Enma had told him about. But now; it was evident, it was all around him.

For a moment, the feelings that rushed through him were so alien to him, he thought he had lost himself. But Enma's presence kept him grounded, wouldn't let him ascend from his body. Even though the lure of reaching into the vast unknown around him was so tempting. It was as if the air around him called him out, called him out to join a world in which pain was fleeting.

"Keep yourself in there Hiruzen." Enma's voice said; it was lower and harsher than it was normally, but it was still familiar. "Don't let it seduce you; make it join you instead. I will slowly give control back to you… If you give into the urge you will die here, you will dissipate into thin air and not even the Shinigami will be able to claim your soul. Once you have control you must let yourself fall into the trench: trust that the chakra will keep you safe and it will, you won't die but you'll be reborn."

Hiruzens' mind tumbled and spun around; the words registered but they didn't take hold. He thought he had understood the kind of power he was seeking but this was so much older, so much more than what he could possibly understand. What gave him the right to try and control something so ancient? It didn't want to be controlled… it wanted to be free like the wind; it wanted to be fleeting.

"Take control Hiruzen!" Enma bellowed out.

Control? What was control? One had no control over Life or Death… Life was fleeting, only the air would always be there, and it would be fleeting aswell, but it would come back. The cycle of a gust of wind, being there and not being there, Life and Death... How could he control something like that?

For a moment Hiruzen was sure that if he let go, of everything, it would all just be okay. But in the far back of his mind a small voice told him of his responsibility, of the lives that needed his guardianship. That needed his power. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives depended on him, on his strength.

A storm was brewing. Who had said that? Danzo? He couldn't let himself go in the wind… He needed to control the wind, needed to master that storm… And suddenly the world was clear again. He reigned in control. Latched onto the chakra as like a toddler held onto his mothers' hand.

"Now Sarutobi! Jump, now!" It all made sense once more, of course, he had to die and be reborn; he had to be fleeting to be eternal, like the wind. With a mighty force of will Hiruzen moved himself to the edge of the trench and jumped.

Enma's own colors returned as the blue faded away. "Now only time will tell if my friend will come back."

* * *

><p>Ino woke up to the sound of her sensei sharpening her hairpins. "Ah, it seems you've decided to finally grace us with your ever so pleasant presence." The sarcasm couldn't be more tangible than that.<p>

"Hello, sensei." Ino felt her hair in her face, and without a thought used the chakra control excercise she had been taught so long ago to make her hair pull itself back into a pony-tail. Koharu-sensei gave her a weird look, which Ino expertly ignored.

Utatane reached out with her hand, which Ino gladly took as the help to get up without too much effort. "The three of you did well last night." With a barely hidden smile she motioned at the two boys lying on the couch. "I didn't ecpect the three of you to accomplish this task in one day." Now she leaned forward, in a very conspiring way. "Don't tell them this, but you've exceeded my expectations."

Inside, Ino felt a very warm feeling take hold of her chest. "Thank you, sensei." She said.

"Yes… Listen closely… I will be busy the coming days; and you three will need your rest. So until the chuunin exams start, I want the three of you to rest up and make sure you are in tip top condition." Her sensei looked at her with pride in her eyes. "After all, no student of mine will look ragged or sleep deprived when showcasing her talents."

Koharu-sensei placed the hairpins in her tightly spun bun and put on a coat, reaching for the door with her hand. "Make sure they don't start drooling on the carpet… It is cashmere, not that they would value such a thing." And with those words she left her mansion.

Ino stood there, baffled. She had never seen her sensei this… this… loose? She blinked a few times, and pinched herself but realized she wasn't dreaming. Then she looked at the two boys lying on the couch, she should let them sleep in, they had really put up a fight yesterday, given their very best.  
>But why should she waste her day waiting on them? So after coughing twice; warming up her voice, she let it rip.<p>

Ten minutes later Ino arrived at her home. She hadn't been home much this week. But thankfully her mother welcomed her with a cup of jasmin tea. "How was training sweetie?" she asked after pouring herself a cup of tea as well.

"Well, we did a lot of it… Managed to capture, uhm, an animal." Ino held the cup between her hands and under her nose, the smell and warmness of the tea relaxed her, the terrors of yesterday feeling far away. "And Sensei is really proud of us. Said we exceeded her expectations."

Her mother gave her one of those 'I'm so proud of you' smiles. "Well, I'm happy to hear that. Your father has been agitated all morning. It will do him good to know it went well."

"Oh come on. Dad shouldn't be such a worry-wart."

Her mother merely raised an eyebrow, making Ino sigh. "He's only this way because I'm a girl and not a boy. He should trust me more. Like sensei does. She knows I pull my own weigth in the team."

Ino suddenly didn't feel like drinking the rest of her tea and put it back on the table. "That's not at all-"

"It's okay mom… I'm just tired, sorry. I'm gonna go see Sakura." Ino gave her mom a kiss and almost ran out. She needed someone less... adult.

Sakura lived pretty close to Ino, it took Ino only a few minutes to get there. Knocking on the door she waited for someone to come open it. She knocked again when no one seemed to open, but halfway through; the door opened. "Sorry, I had no pants on yet." Sakura appologized cheerfully, opening the door.

"It's okay, I'm kind of early. I just, well I wanted to have a girls' day. You know, like we used to." Ino let herself in and went straight for the kitchen. "Do you have anything to eat?"

Sakura was barefooted and looking for her sandals, which apparently were not where she thought she had put them the day before. "There should be some Taiyaki left… I didn't eat them all."

Ino found the plate with three chocolate filled Taiyaki fish cakes. "Oh, nice; chocolate!" Ino had already devoured her first before she went to Sakura's room. "Your parents have to work?" She said while munching on the second fishcake.

Sakura, who had apparently found her sandals, sat on her bed and put the footwear on. "Hmm? Oh no, they went to the market. There is supposed to be this new stall that sells all these different kinds of cheese."

"Oh, we should do that!" Ino exclaimed.

"Sell cheese?" Sakura asked befuddled.

"No, silly. Go to the market; let's shop till we drop!" Ino's enthousiasme was hard to deny. "I mean, I'm free today from training. You are FINALLY free from training as well. We should do some girly shopping, not be Kunoichi for a day!"

Sakura smiled, putting on her other sandal. "Sure, I could use some new socks and such."

"Great! Come." Ino took Sakura's hand and, very kindly, dragged her out of the house.

"Wait, let me grab my wallet." Sakura searched one of the drawers in her desk. "There, now we can go."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Yay for inspiration! Anyways, some much needed world building and plot building in this chapter. I started writing this chapter from team Sevens' pov. But it just didn't make sense, I couldn't get the information in without forcing situations that didn't make sense. And then it suddenly hit me; Ino was the perfect conduit for this chapter, surrounded by important people in a way that team seven is not.

Hopefully you all like this chapter.

So: Happy new year and if you celebrate any holidays between then and now, happy holiday aswell.


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